


Sideways

by Weasleymama



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Incest, Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 01:04:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3958618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weasleymama/pseuds/Weasleymama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p><br/><span class="big"></span><i></i><b>These feelings won't go away<br/></b><br/>They've been knockin' me sideways<br/>Citizen Cope : Sideways</p>
</div>Unknown to be half-siblings, Draco and Ginny are drawn to one another.
            </blockquote>





	1. Non-Verbal

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> This author replies to all comments!

> With one last scream and a push the baby was out and Narcissa collapsed on the bed. As she lay breathing hard, trying to catch her breath, a house elf was mopping the sweat from her face. A mid-wife tended to the new baby with a smile. “A beautiful girl, mum.” The woman said sweetly as she wrapped up the tiny infant and brogught her over to Narcissa. Dobby was a dutiful house elf who was tucking back his mistress’s hair and trying to make her comfortable as she was handed her baby. She had a tired smile on her face as she looked down to the small round face of her daughter. Her perfect family, pure and true, would be complete.
> 
> Narcissa tucked back the blanket to get a better look while Dobby assisted in cleaning up the mess. Her eyes instantly went wide with fear - it couldn’t be. Quickly she covered the baby’s head again, hiding the red fuzz on the little girl’s head. Narcissa’s mind quickly reeled back to the affair. It had been so short – she didn’t love the man – she loved her husband and wanted his attention. And she’d gotten it but in all the wrong ways. There wasn’t a salve strong enough to cover the bruises he’d left on her when he discovered them together.
> 
> While Lucius had beaten his wife, he’d done far worse to the man she’d brought into her bed. He obliviated the ginger haired man and planted a story about the man trying to rob them and trying to kill Narcissa. The man was sent to Azkaban and would end up dying there for a crime he never committed. Through the whole pregnancy, Narcissa hoped the baby was Lucius’s but she had never been sure. But now seeing the red hair on the baby, she knew.
> 
> “Dobby.” She muttered. “My wand.” The elf brought her the wand and she aimed it at the mid-wife’s back. “Obliviate” she barely whispered, the woman’s eyes went blank. “Dobby take her far away from here.” And with nervous nods, the elf took the woman’s hand and with a pop they were gone.
> 
> Her voice shook upon the elf’s return – knowing Lucius would be up soon and would surely kill them both once he saw the ginger hair on the baby’s head. “Take the baby, take her.” She held out the infant to the confused but obeying elf. “Find a wizarding family, gingers.” She paused for a moment, her nature taking over. “Purebloods. A family that will take care of her as their own.” She tried to maintain her composure as she gave specific instructions to ensure that the elf could never tell a soul about the child’s existence. When she heard the tap of Lucius’ shoes coming down the hall she could feel the panic hit her. “Go. Now!” And the elf was gone with another pop, taking her daughter with him.
> 
> Narcissa knew would be punished again as soon as her husband entered the room and he did not disappoint. She tried to tell him that the infant was dead, stillborn, and she’d sent the mid-wife away with the body – but he saw through her attempts.
> 
> Punishing his wife was the one thing Lucius did like a muggle. The sound it made when his hand met her cheek seemed to echo through the room. He didn’t want details of the child; he had no urge to find the product of yet another stain on his perfect family. Instead he brutally beat his wife with his hands and the cane that held his wand secure. Only when she was on her knees pleading and apologizing to him did he stop striking her. He pulled her to her feet and pressed her to the wall. “You will never betray me again.” He spoke coldly.
> 
> “Never...” She whimpered out - but it wasn’t enough for him.
> 
> “Never.” He repeated, his eyes glaring hard into hers as his wand pressing against her stomach. The spell was non-verbal, only the cold look in his eyes gave her an indication it was coming. She was too weak to stop him and could only scream in pain before she crumpled to the floor. Narcissa lay in a ball sobbing - the pain was worse than any child birth, worse even than the Cruciatus Curse. With the single, silent blow Narcissa would never be able to have children again.
> 
> Lucius killed more than her womb that night, he killed something else deep inside her and made her go cold. He could hit her, he could sleep with her and tell her he loved her, he could buy her the best of everything but nothing changed her. Though she could remain courteous and polite, she was empty inside. Only Draco received any love and affection – all she had left went to her only child. He was protected, spoiled and given everything – to Narcissa, Draco was all that mattered anymore.
> 
> Ginny Weasley never knew she was an adopted child once left on a doorstep. How could she have known? After all she resembled her family and was accepted by her siblings as their sister, and most importantly she was a Weasley in her heart. Molly and Arthur discussed telling her several times, but there had always been some reason not to. Something would always come up and they would hold their tongues. Eventually they stopped even trying to think of a reason she needed to know. She was their daughter, she was loved and a decade had gone by and no one had ever come to claim her. The older boys didn’t say anything, and the younger didn’t remember any different than having a little sister.
> 
> However, Narcissa never forgot the small ginger child. She was left with a gaping hole inside her where her daughter once was. She made a point never to ask Dobby where he had taken the baby, deep down Narcissa knew that it would only risk their lives. She knew that even know, many years later, Lucius would still kill her illegitimate child without hesitation – and likely kill her as well just for the reminder of it all. Lucius, too, never forgot. His lack of more children, even at his own hand, was a constant reminder. Though he had no doubts that the punishment fit the crime. She’d deceived him and betrayed him and if he ever found that child he’d relish in watching it die.


	2. Why Are You Here

> Ginny couldn’t explain why she found herself back in the second-floor girl’s bathroom again and again. Her lack of memory about the events that transpired there was frustrating but she still preferred being close to the Chamber. It held so much mystery for her. And despite it being a place where she almost died, Ginny felt almost safe there. While sometimes she had the company of a ghost whom she didn’t fully understand, for the most part the bathroom was left empty. Ginny tried to speak to Myrtle on several occasions; originally trying to get information about the past and what she’d done in there and why Myrtle never told anyone but it never got her very far. She even tried to get Myrtle to talk about herself, but as soon as she questioned why Myrtle remained or why she lived in the plumbing, the ghost let out an offended scream and took off into the toilet.
> 
> By the age of fourteen, Ginny came to realize that Myrtle didn’t like other girls, she held onto resentment from being bullied in her youth. Ginny was a pretty girl and relatively popular, not to mention having a boy like Harry Potter in her life and Myrtle held it all against her. And by fifteen, Ginny confirmed that Myrtle would speak much nicer with a guy than she ever would with her. 
> 
> Ginny sat on the floor around the backside of the circular sinks. She needed a quiet place to work on her History of Magic essay and the common room was filled with bickering and annoyances that drove her out. She didn’t notice anyone else enter right away, it wasn’t until she heard Myrtle speaking sweetly that it all became clear. The reply however is what got Ginny’s attention, it was a boy...in the girl’s loo. Ginny didn’t move at first, listening to Myrtle trying to comfort a very upset boy, but as her curiosity grew, she had to peek out and see who Myrtle spoke so kindly to. 
> 
> His white blonde hair stood out against the dark stone. Draco Malfoy. Ginny didn’t cover her mouth quickly enough to hide the gasp and Draco and Myrtle both turned quickly. “Sneak!” Myrtle screeched and Ginny scrambled to grab her things and leave quickly. Draco was quicker than she was and as soon as she stood with his wand in hand as he stared her down with cold grey eyes. He towered over her with threatening body language and she could feel the end of his was against her sweater. 
> 
> Ginny took in a deep breath, hating herself for being scared of _him_ of all people. Something about the way he sped at her had caught her off guard but she regrouped quickly enough and shoved him backwards. “Don’t point that thing at me like you’re actually going to use it.” She snapped, knowing he _could_ very well use it, and likely would. He seemed just as shocked at seeing her as she’d been in seeing him that he hadn’t even stopped her from shoving him. “You know this is a girl’s toilet don’t you?” She snapped her only means of defense to take attention away from her own eavesdropping.
> 
> Draco froze as he looked into her fierce eyes, he knew those eyes from somewhere; they felt familiar and safe. He felt a pang in his chest at being the one to put a look of fear in those eyes. Why had he done that? He stopped questioning himself as she shoved him, his chance to stun her was gone but he didn’t care. With his wand at his side, he couldn’t stop looking at her eyes, how had he not noticed them before now? Draco sighed, shook his head a bit as if trying to shake her out. He didn’t answer her, only turned quickly and was out the door before she could stop him. “Now look what you’ve done!” Screeched Myrtle but Ginny wasn’t listening as she stared with intrigue at Draco.
> 
> As Ginny walked away from the bathroom she couldn’t shake the strange feeling she had in her stomach. The fact that he was in the girl’s toilet wasn’t the part that stuck with her, it was how he’d looked at her and backed down that she couldn’t get off her mind. He stood so close those cool eyes right on her and just walked away. Maybe Harry was right about Draco being up to something...either way, she found herself frequenting the second-floor loo even more often now, subconsciously hoping to see him again. And perhaps it was along the same thinking that made Draco return as well. 
> 
> Ginny was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall when he walked in. He hesitated at the door when he saw her, his eyes darting around for Myrtle. “I asked her if she liked to watch people piss, and she took off screaming.” Ginny told him simply, not shying away from looking at him.
> 
> “You shouldn’t be mean to her.” He muttered, stepping inside but leaning against the wall near the door. “It’s not her fault she died in here.” Ginny just stared at him for a moment – he was not as she expected, not when he spoke like _that_. She couldn’t help but wonder how someone could be so cruel to classmates but care about a ghost. Ginny pushed herself up to her feet and the two of them just looked at one another for a long moment like two predators trying to figure one another out. Neither seemed to want to be the first to speak or show weakness. They were both curious about the other, and while Draco would never admit it, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. “Why are you here?” He finally asked her, arms crossing across his chest.
> 
> Ginny cocked her brow and eyed him. “Why are _you_ here?” She asked back with a scoff. “It’s a _girl’s_ toilet, Malfoy.” He just shrugged as if that didn’t exactly matter. He wanted his safe place back, he’d wanted to confront her, scare her and make sure she never came back. But once he was standing there looking at her, he couldn’t find the words he’d planned to use. Her eyes drew him in in a way he couldn’t explain and looking at her, even with that annoyed expression on her face, made him feel better. The stress he felt, the fear and the realization that he was likely going to die before the year was up...all of it seemed to roll off him. “What?!” She snapped as he continued to stare at her.
> 
> Her eyes were like a dose of Veritaserum, in lieu of biting remarks, honest words came out without his really thinking about it. “If I told you I was going to die, would you still hate me so much?” Ginny blinked several times, even more shocked at his soft words than his eyes on her. She shook her head, ready to tell him that she didn’t hate him, he was the one who hated people…but he spoke before she could even get the words out. “Yes, you do. You all do.” He told her, sure of his words. “You, Potter, Weasel.” She glared at him. “Your brother.” He corrected. “And the mu-” he stopped, instinctually her hand reached for her wand. “Granger.” 
> 
> Ginny had gone right for her wand, knowing the word ‘mudblood’ was coming out before he even spoke a syllable of it. “Why do you do that?” She asked him, fingers grazing the wood of her wand. “You know how awful it is to call someone that, but it’s the first thing to come out of your mouth. You say it without even thinking about it.” He had the decency to look away from her as she practically scolded him, but when he looked back he was so drawn in by her eyes that he couldn’t look away again. “Don’t you think they have reason to hate you when you talk about them like that? About all of us?” Ginny was so bluntly honest that it shocked him a little. She didn’t hesitate to call him on things, to glare at him with those hauntingly beautiful eyes.
> 
> “I…” He sighed, she couldn’t possibly understand anything he was feeling. Draco shook his head and turned away from her, his hands on the sink, the sink that had opened in the past and drew Ginny Weasley in. He looked at himself in the mirror, pale, thin and breaking from the inside out. “Can you just go?” His behavior confused Ginny, she couldn’t help but look at him and how he seemed to hunch over the sink and hold onto it like it was all that was holding him up. But she didn’t leave, instead she just took a step back from him, leaning against a stall. 
> 
> He watched her in the mirror as her eyes stayed on him and he spoke again, his voice almost a whisper. “Tell me something, Weasley. Would you die to protect your family?” He watched as she bit at her bottom lip a little, thinking about it for no more than a few seconds before she nodded…but the curiosity remained in her eyes. “So would I.” He took in a deep breath and stood up straight, quite a bit taller than her. “Guess we have something in common.” His demeanor changed almost instantly and his back was strong and he stood with confidence. 
> 
> Ginny didn’t understand what was happening, he had such changes in his mood and personality so quickly that it threw her off. But he wasn’t taunting her, he wasn’t throwing insults at her like he would in the past so she tried to brush it off. The silence between them made the tension grow and she knew she had to break it before it made them both turn as ugly as she knew they could. “That’s the opening.” She told him, pointing to the sink he’d been leaning on. “To the Chamber of Secrets.” She continued in such a casual way it was hard to think she’d been taken there. His eyes shot back to the sink and he looked at it in a different way now. “Didn’t Myrtle tell you?” 
> 
> Draco shook his head a little. “N-no, she said she died here, she said people were cruel to her. She mostly listens to me…” He felt strange then as he thought about what was under there had killed Myrtle as well as almost killed Ginny. 
> 
> He looked to her, curiosity written all over his face, but something help him back from asking outright like many had in the past. “I don’t remember all of it, I was, um, possessed by…you know.” And he nodded, he knew, and unlike Ginny, he’d faced the man and not the memory. He swallowed hard at the mention of his Lord and his hand clenched a little under the robes, the tattoo still fresh on his pale skin. “I know I did bad things but…I don’t remember any of it, I don’t even remember going down there. Only that when Harry woke me up I was there and it was cold.”
> 
> “ _Harry_ …” He practically huffed out the name with resentment as he rolled his eyes. 
> 
> “What? What is it with you and Harry?” When he shook his head she continued to snap at him. “Don’t you see that when you are so against someone who is known as the epitome of good and trying to save everything that it just makes you look like you’re against saving it?” 
> 
> Draco’s brow furrowed some and he shook his head again. “You’re the one who doesn’t get it. It has nothing to do with what he stands for, despite my entire family being at risk because of him. It’s just who he is. You don’t see it, you will never see it.”
> 
> “What are you talking about?” She asked, Harry had been in her life for years, it was hard to see him as anything but the good guy. But she had also never tried to see it from another side. Draco shook his head at her question and turned his back on her again. She knew any moment he could walk out, he could choose not to come back in there if he wanted. And something inside her didn’t want him to go. She was captivated, there was more there, the way he looked at her was like no one else. But despite her silent wants, he took one last look at her and was out the door quickly. 


	3. It's Just Survival

> Ginny glanced over at Draco as he walked into the bathroom looking distraught. He walked to the sink that opened the chamber and stared into the mirror as he spoke. “Everyone knows the legends of Slytherin; that he didn’t want to teach anyone but pure blood wizards. But, I wonder sometimes if he meant for it to turn into this. All the hate and war and deaths…” He sighed a little. “Do you think he kept that monster down there because he knew one day he’d want to let it out?” His eyes moved to look at her reflection in the mirror.
> 
> Her brow furrowed some, not sure why a wizard with his clear views and reputation was asking a question like that. “I…I don’t know. I know the snake only did what it was told, it didn’t just go out attacking people on its own. I guess if he’d wanted to he could have just set it loose back then, right?” She sat up some and shrugged. Draco shrugged and let his eyes drift away from her. “Why do you come in here?” She asked him after a moment’s silence and he was tempted to ask her the same thing, but he held back.
> 
> “What do you know about my father?” He asked after a moment’s silence and turning to face her. At first, she thought it was going to be another cocky threat regarding telling his father so she just stared at him with a raised brow and let him continue. “He’s a death eater.” It wasn’t the truth in his words that caught Ginny off guard, it was how casually he said it. Then again, it was common knowledge at this point wasn’t it. “They’re going to kill him. And my mum.” Ginny listened with a furrowed brow. Was he serious? Who was they? Voldemort? Other Death Eaters? “He’s failed too many times and our name is mud now.” He let out a wry chuckle he slumped against the sink behind him. “My name is mud…of all things.” 
> 
> “Malfoy?”
> 
> But he kept talking over her, not even sure why he was telling her everything he was. There was something about her that made him feel safe. After all she kept coming back there too. “I knew how to say mudblood before I even knew what it meant. I’ll bet that you were raised to love and accept people…” He chucked wryly. “All of you were. I was raised to hate and judge people and was taught that I was better than everyone else because of my blood. My father hates yours, hates all gingers actually.” Draco shrugged as she looked curious. “In my house, you don’t ask questions, you do what you’re told and keep your mouth shut.” He let out a sigh. “I know he’s not the best man, he almost killed my mother…a few times. If I wasn’t his only heir he’d likely have done the same to me. But pure blood and all…” He shrugged again as Ginny sat listening. She stared at him and held back all the emotion she was feeling for him. “But, he’s still my father and I’d do anything for my family. Just like you would.”
> 
> Ginny’s eyes locked on his as she opened her mouth to speak. It took her a moment to find words to even use in that moment. “I-I...” She swallowed hard. “I don’t agree with what they believe in – what they are - but…I’m sorry you might lose your family. No one deserves that.” She frowned a little, thinking of when she nearly lost her own father. “Why do you come here, Draco?” She asked him after a beat of silence. “If your family hates mine, if you hate me and my friends…why do you come here and talk to me?”
> 
> He turned away, looking back in the mirror for a moment. The candle light made his face look even paler and more hallow than it already was. He looked so sick and she hadn’t seen it until just then as she watched him closely. “Truth?” He asked her, looking at her in the reflection. She nodded and he turned again. “I don’t really hate any of you. But we all have reputations to keep up around here. And the worse it is at home, the harder I try to be the man he wants me to be. He gets furious when he hears things about me from people here. He hears that I’m soft, that I’m not as good in classes as Granger, he hears that I’m not as good at Quidditch as Potter, he hears that someone like you or your brother is regarded higher than I am despite our name and he’s beyond livid. I try to make him proud so he stops taking his anger and disappointment of me out on my mother when I’m not there.”
> 
> Ginny didn’t have to ask, from his mention of them being almost killed and the tone he used, Draco made it very clear that was exactly what Lucius Malfoy did to his family at home. It became very clear that every time they showed him up, every time Hermione of all people bested him that he was punished or his mother was – for something she could never control. “If treating you lot badly, keeps my mother from getting hurt because she made an unworthy son, then I’ll be the bad guy every year.” 
> 
> He sighed, sinking to the ground near the sink, wishing he could sink into that chamber and disappear, take his family in there and just be gone. If no one could find them then the pressure would be gone, his father wouldn’t be as angry if he wasn’t so scared of being killed by people who once took orders from him. She thought hard about everything he said to her, about how if Lucius wasn’t so cruel, there was a chance that Draco would be someone else entirely.
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> It was more than a month of talking in the bathroom before she opened the Chamber for him. It was because he never asked that she considered it. Unbeknownst to Draco, Ginny had opened the chamber many times before and gone back in. There was so much unanswered for her down there and revisiting the place looking for the resolution to the confusion inside her that she could only blame on what happened in there.
> 
> They stood over the dark hole in the floor and he glanced over at her. “Scared?” She asked with a little smirk, they had grown more casual with one another over the past few weeks. He rolled his eyes at her and looked back at the darkness. He gave her one last look before he stepped off the edge and let himself fall without a sound. Ginny watched his white blonde hair get smaller until she couldn’t see it any longer and she knew then how much he trusted her. She could have set him up for death if she’d wanted, but they both seemed to know that wasn’t why they kept coming back. 
> 
> Draco was getting to his feet as she came down and landed on hers, dusting off his pristine robes. He seemed disappointed at first with the state of the place – kicking a few small bones around at his feet and sending dust up around them. “Wonder what it looked like in Slytherin’s day.” He muttered mostly to himself. Ginny lead the way through the rocks, the tunnels, and then the door Harry opened nearly five years before until they were standing before the giant stone face of Salthazar Slytherin. 
> 
> While Draco stood still staring up at his house founder’s face, Ginny moved to the side, sitting cross-legged on the ground where she’d once lay unconscious. She watched him as he looked around, taking in the massive space that few people in the whole world had ever seen. “I used to wish it was me.” He mumbled, finally looking over at her. “The heir of Slytherin.” She looked to him, brows furrowed in confusion. “No one would have come after me like they did for you, and my father would have been proud of me before I died.”
> 
> Ginny frowned, trying to find an honest response to his words. She couldn’t truly say she’d have gone to find him back then but, finally something else came to mind, “Would _you_ have been proud of you?” She asked him softly, “If it had been you, no one would have stopped it, he would have come back sooner, a lot of people would have died…if that happened, would _you_ have been proud?” 
> 
> “I’ve never been proud of myself, Ginny. So I doubt it would have mattered back then at all. Maybe I would have gotten to haunt the school like Myrtle.” And the way he seemed to think this was a good thing concerned her.
> 
> “Wouldn’t be much left to haunt.” She replied in a soft tone but he just shrugged.
> 
> “How many times have you come back down here?” He asked her – her landing after the fall had been too good to be a first time. She shrugged and muttered a few times. “Why?” He asked – legitimately curious as to why she continued to frequent a place that tormented her as a child. Ginny sat silent for a while staring up at the stones all around them. She let her eyes move to the water and the stained rock from the blood of the snake to the bones of the creature itself.
> 
> “I don’t know. I guess, I just want to understand it.” She glanced over to him and he moved to sit as well. “I don’t remember anything, I woke up here with chunks of my life missing. It’s…difficult, and then there’s parts of me that think I remember and then I wonder if I’m just making it up from stories I heard. I just…feel like something is missing.”
> 
> They both skipped dinner and sat for hours talking in the Chamber. After a long beat of silence, Draco took in a deep breath before he spoke, just saying the words was hard for him, never the less saying it to her. “I’m scared.” He barely breathed it out, but in the silence of the Chamber and how close beside her he sat, she heard him clearly. Ginny didn’t need to ask him what he was frightened of – he’d spent enough time telling her about death eater and his parents and how he didn’t think he’d see them again.
> 
> Ginny sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and hesitated for a moment, this was Draco Malfoy after all, but then she reached over and brushed her hand against his. His hands were cold and his eyes darted to her quickly, but he didn’t jerk his hand away. They looked at one another silently when something inside drew her in closer. She didn’t stop to think about what she was doing, or who he was, she just leaned over towards him.
> 
> Draco’s eyes went but he didn’t stop her or move away. Her kiss was soft and pure and unlike any kiss he’d ever had before. It was forbidden and strange, but being so close to her felt good - felt _right_. It took him a second before his eyes closed and he relaxed and returned the kiss. His hand stayed still in hers, not wanting her to let go as the other moved up to brush over her cheek. 
> 
> His heart pounded, and Ginny’s seemed to jump into her throat as the kiss felt like it was sending fire through the both of them. Her skin tingled at the touch of his hand and everything seemed to move in slow motion making the short spontaneous kiss feel like it was lasting much longer than it actually had. As they pulled back they stared wide-eyed at one another as their hands jerked apart. Ginny licked her bottom lip before she bit down on it not believing what they’d just done – what _she’d_ just done. “S-sorry.” She muttered out, quickly looking away from him as her cheeks went red.
> 
> Draco stared at her, of all the people in the whole world to ever kiss him he never imagined it would be Ginny Weasley. He had been kissed many times before…but no kiss had ever been like that one, so chaste and still so intense. He’d never had a kiss so sweet and genuine that made him feel like his stomach was doing flips. “I’m not.” He replied back to her simply.
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> Draco and Ginny knew better than to let on about anything – even friendship – budding between them. There was too much animosity between houses, between friends and enemies. But every so often, Ginny would look up across the great hall and catch him looking back. They didn’t let their lips smile, but their eyes spoke volumes between them.
> 
> Due to poor marks on her last exam, Pansy entered the great hall late for dinner. Her eyes always went straight to Draco in any room, but today when she found him in the crowd she caught the stolen glance. Her eyes found Draco’s but her smile faded when she saw the look on his face. A stare without a smile, but his eyes seemed to shine and that contented expression was not aimed at her – he had _never_ looked at _her_ that way. Her eyes darted across the room, looking for anyone he could be looking at that way. When Pansy found the matching expression anger, jealousy, and disgust flared up inside her quicker than it ever had before. A blood traitor like Weasley? She clenched her fist around her wand buried inside her robes and her hand shook slightly. It took everything in her not to whip out the wand right then and strike Ginny Weasley down.
> 
> Ginny watched Draco for a moment, eyes locked together until his gaze changed. His expression changed as soon as Pansy stormed over to him. Ginny watched as Pansy approached in a flash and leaned in, whispering angrily with a pointing finger. His eyes went from content to wide like a deer in headlamps. He quickly turned to Pansy and his eyes flashed in anger as he spoke in the same angered whisper and while Ginny couldn’t hear the words she could see the body language. Pansy’s expression changed from one of defiant pride to sheepish and apologetic. Ginny looked away, she didn’t want to see him like that, she didn’t want to know what they were saying so she just turned her head down and finished her supper in silence. 
> 
> After dinner Ginny walked towards the bathroom with her head high, confidant and strong but inside her stomach was twisting and her heart was racing. They hadn’t planned to meet tonight, but something about his interaction with Pansy rattled Ginny. She hoped he’d be there to explain, to assure her that talks of the two of them we’re already travelling around the school. She couldn’t hold back a smile when she saw he was already there. She locked the door behind herself before the two moved closer to one another. Draco wrapped his arm around her and let his forehead rest against hers as he took in a deep breath – her scent soothing him and instantly calming all stresses on his mind.
> 
> “What happened earlier with Pansy?” Ginny asked him as they sat on the floor together. Their backs against the wall, but they leaned against one another as their fingers linked together. She knew something was off… everyone knew Pansy wanted Draco and would never do anything to make him cross with her.
> 
> “She saw me looking at you.” He replied simply, getting Ginny’s attention quickly. They’d talked a lot about not letting people know about them, about how awful everything around them could become if people knew. No one else could possibly understand the connection they felt to one another, the safety they felt together. People would judge it and ruin it. “I told her she was wrong.” He replied, but Ginny just eyed him silently. “Okay so I said a little more, but it doesn’t matter now. It was just to throw her off.” Ginny nodded, understanding then that he’d spewed off insults he didn’t want to repeat. “Gin…” He began, “No matter what you hear I’ve said or done, you know I’d never hurt you, right?” He asked her softly. “You and me right here is the real truth, everything else is just…survival out there.”
> 
> Ginny smiled as she nodded. “I know.” She slid in a little closer as she let go of his hand to allow his arm to wrap around her shoulders before her lips pressed to his jaw.
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> Deep in the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny’s fingers lingered at Draco’s pale bare chest, moving over the scar slowly. He’d told Ginny what happened with Harry, about the curses and the hate, about Snape coming to save him from what would have surely been certain death. He didn’t shy away from the truth with Ginny, he didn’t refrain from telling her about how own crimes He had intended to curse Harry, he’d intended to hurt him and he didn’t deny it. He hadn’t expected to be lying in a pool of water and blood with a screaming ghost and Snape healing him in the same place he spent so many evenings with Ginny. Draco placed his hand over hers and looked into her eyes. “Gin, I’m okay.” 
> 
> “I can’t believe you nearly used an unforgiveable.” She told him, disappointment all over her face. “You think you’d still be okay if you’d done that and been sent to Azkaban? Who even taught you how to do that?” 
> 
> “My aunt.” He muttered, pushing his hand through her hair slowly. “And my father.” He sat up a little more and let out a sigh. “Honestly I wish you’d let me teach you how to do it. You don’t know what could happen Gin, and some shield charm isn’t going to keep a Death Eater away from you. You need to know how to fight back.”
> 
> Ginny frowned as she pulled back a little. “I told you already, I’m not doing that spell, and you shouldn’t do it either.”
> 
> “Some things you don’t do because you want to do.”
> 
> “You wanted to with Harry.” She replied quickly. “I know you two hate each other but you make your own choices, Draco.”
> 
> “You going to give him this speech too?” He asked flatly. “Going to scold him about using dark magic.” Her eyes looked down on the scar once more as Draco began to button up his shirt. 
> 
> “Oh shut up.” She told him with a shove, only to move right back in to him to kiss him once more. She was angry about the fight, she was disappointed that he would use such a spell, but it wasn’t enough to change how she felt for him. She knew Harry’s spell could have killed him. If the slice had hit his neck, or if Snape hadn’t arrived when he did and she was just thankful he was alive. 
> 
> In little time the two were kissing passionately and wrapped up so close together it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. When finally he pulled back he slid his fingers through her hair and smiled. “I don’t know how anyone could have something against gingers, you’re so beautiful.” Unlike he spoke to most others, when Draco spoke to Ginny he spoke soft and gently almost giving her another compliment with just his tone. “You remember what I told you a few weeks ago, right?” He questioned as curfew closed in. “That what happens here is the truth, that out there…” 
> 
> “It’s just survival.” She completed the sentence, showing she remembered it all.
> 
> “Remember that for me, okay? No matter what happens.” Ginny had no idea just how far Draco had gone for survival – that earlier in the day he’d finally mended the vanishing cabinet and his job from Voldemort was coming to a close. She didn’t overthink his words or allow any suspicions arise. She was sure he’d been speaking about the fight with Harry or having to say something nasty about her again to make sure no one found out about them. Death Eaters and attacks on the school and Headmaster never even entered her mind. 
> 
> “Of course.” She replied as she kissed him once more, knowing she’d never question what they were to one another…it was all too real. He’d been honest with her about something that was, by definition, unforgiveable. He knew she could have been so upset with him she’d have left, but he took the risk anyway just to be honest. Ginny felt at home with Draco, just as open as he was and knew she could be just as honest. She’d told him about her fears and secrets without any worry that he’d use it against her. If anything, he just wanted to comfort her.
> 
> Draco stopped and turned just before leaving the bathroom above the Chamber. He took her hand and looked at her in a way that showed how much she meant to him without his even saying the words. “Just remember _this_ , no matter what.” He was gone before she could speak, but she smiled after him. It wasn’t negative to her, it wasn’t worrying. He’d already told her a number of terrible things about his life, what could he possibly do that could turn her away from him now? 
> 
> When Ginny stepped through the portrait hole she was immediately pulled to a corner by Hermione. “Hermione! What?” But she didn’t finish before the bushy haired girl began to speak quickly about Harry leaving and insisting they all take the rest of the luck potion, he was sure something was going to happen tonight. Everything seemed to happen so fast after that. Several students hid out in their houses, but others went right for the commotion, fighting wizards much stronger than they were without any fear. They were protecting their home, their school and their lives. 
> 
> Ginny caught sight of Draco rushing past her through the chaos and her eyes instantly filled with tears. The pain inside flashed across her face – she understood now. This was what he meant when he told her that it was all survival, this is what he meant when he told he had to do _something_ or his father would be killed. And as it all hit her like a blow to the chest she screamed out: “What did you do?!” Her voice was shrill, scared, and hurt and immediately caught his attention. He looked back as he ran, his steel eyes caught Ginny’s and the pain that he knew he caused made him want to turn back but Snape urged him on. 
> 
> She chased after him, pushing her brother out of the way with her wand held high. She dodged a curse flying past her and slid across the floor. She didn’t look to see what made her fall, she just gave chase. Draco looked back again, seeing her red hair flying behind her as she tried to follow…and the red jet coming at her beyond that. She was going to be hit right in the back. “Ginny!” He screamed as Snape pulled his arm. “Protego!” He shot back, barely getting the protection around her in time. She turned to fight back at the Death Eater who’s aimed at her back and by the time she turned back around, Draco was gone. 


	4. Unpure

> The final battle had ended. 
> 
> The dust was settling and the survivors sat scattered in the great hall recovering. There was a clear mix of joy and pain…wounds to heal and dead to bury. Ginny sat close to her mother, head on her shoulder and eyes closed. She was so tired and her entire body hurt all over, but she didn’t want to sleep. She just wanted to hold onto her mum. Her dirty face was smeared with tear stains and her mind was reeling.
> 
> It felt like so much longer than a day, it felt like years of fighting and death all around them. It felt like it had never stopped. But now it was over. Finally over. Voldemort was gone – this time for good. Harry was the hero again and while the school was damaged it was not beyond repair. 
> 
> When Ginny finally opened her eyes she looked around the room. While she saw dead bodies and wounded friends, she also saw smiles and relief on people’s faces. She looked at her own family and noticed the lack of Hermione, Ron, and Harry…but that was nothing new anymore, they’d been apart for so long now that she forgot what it was like to constantly be together. She saw Neville sitting proudly with the sword he’d earned and she smiled a little. He was a hero too, and despite no one treating him as they treated Harry he didn’t seem phased at all…if anything he was proud of himself. 
> 
> The moment Draco and his family entered the Great Hall
> 
> The moment Draco and his family entered the Great Hall, he looked for Ginny and once he found her he hadn’t stopped watching her. He’d seen her fighting his aunt and was sure the ginger would be killed – until Mrs. Weasley appeared. Draco watched ‘Auntie Bella’ fall at the hands of a Weasley. All he found himself able to care about was if Ginny was safe. While he never expected her to look back, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He could still hear her voice in his head, screaming at him the year before ‘what did you do?’ and he knew everything that had happened was his fault and there was a good chance he’d have to pay for it in the end. 
> 
> Ginny’s eyes found him then and as angry as she had been when he left, when he started the battle in the school that killed their beloved headmaster, she wasn’t angry any longer. Everything seemed to fade away somehow. His family looked just as beaten up and worn down as her own, but his eyes were still the same. She couldn’t help being reminded of the way they sat in that exact same room the year before looking at one another across a crowded room. He still seemed to smile without actually smiling. 
> 
> Draco’s eyes never left her as he stood and took long-legged strides towards her. Ginny took in a deep breath as she let go of her mother and stood as well. She didn’t care about the eyes on him as she stepped closer to him. 
> 
> Lucius eyed his son and caught what he was looking at: the smile of Ginny Weasley. His eyes went wide as he locked into the ginger girl moving towards his son. Now, away from the fear for his life, away from the never ending strive to be on top again, he could see what he’d allowed himself to ignore for so long. His wife’s eyes on the face of a Weasley. He looked over to Narcissa as the rage quickly built inside him but Narcissa wasn’t looking back at him her eyes were on her son. She, too, had only just seen it…the girl moving in closer to her son had her own eyes and smile. “It can’t be…” Narcissa breathed out, her voice trembling.
> 
> Lucius grabbed her arm and roughly turned her to face him. “Tell me. Now.” He growled low so only she could hear him. But she didn’t need to say a word, her expression of fear and confusion and the way she shook told him everything he needed to know. As he watched Draco move in closer to Ginny and smile at her with what could only be love in his eyes, he growled to his wife. “Do you see what you’ve done?” His thin fingers dug into her arm, he’d allowed himself to feel free from it all over time, but there in the dust of a war the reminder of his wife’s affair came back like a strike to the face. 
> 
> The Weasley’s watched in socked silence as the space between Ginny and Draco close and their arms wrapped around one another. Draco felt like all the pain from his life had been lifted off his shoulders as soon as she embraced him. He breathed in deep and leaned in to rest his forehead against hers. He looked into her eyes – so close it was all he could see. “I’m so sorry, Ginny…I’m so sorry.”
> 
> “I know, I know you are.” She replied softly and reached up to push some of his white-blonde hair across his forehead. She felt so relieved just to see him, she hadn’t known if he was still alive until she caught sight of him. “Are you okay?” She asked with a soft smile…they both knew people were watching, but after all they’d all been through that night, they no longer cared about the whispers and onlookers. Draco had thought about Ginny every day, hearing her screaming in his head, terrified she was going to be hurt – that her blood status might not be enough to save her in the end. His hands moved, fingers pushing through her hair and tilting her head some so he could kiss her. Just before his lips met Ginny’s he heard the scream.
> 
> “No!” Narcissa’s voice was loud as it echoed through the hall. Everyone turned to see her and Draco was sure for a moment that it was his affection for Ginny she was against. But Narcissa was screaming at her husband as she tried to pull his wand arm down. He’d obtained a wand at some point in the battle – likely stolen from a fallen wizard and was now aiming it at the young people with hate in his eyes. He shoved his wide roughly to the stone floor and Draco glared as he turned to face his father. “Lucius please stop! Don’t hurt her!” Narcissa begged, pulling at his robes from the ground. 
> 
> “Don’t hurt her?!” He shouted back at his wife. For the first time in his life he didn’t care that people were seeing weaknesses in his perfect family unit. He’d been suppressing feelings of betrayal and anger for sixteen years and couldn’t do it any longer. “I’m not going to hurt her; I’m going to kill her!” Draco’s eyes went wide and he quickly pushed Ginny behind him protectively. “And you’re next, you lying whore!” His hand raised, ready to strike his wife who cowered as she braced herself for what seemed all too common in her life.
> 
> “Stop!” Draco bellowed with more force and power than he’d ever used with his father, his wand held high and aimed directly to his father’s chest. People seemed to circle around them, giving them room, but not wanting to be too close to another battle. Lucius turned to face his son, staring him down with narrowed eyes as he kicked his wife away from him. Sparks flew from the end of Draco’s wand as he watched his mother was knocked down, his own rage bubbling up and out of control.
> 
> “Draco…?” Ginny whispered behind him, her hand on his shoulder. Everyone in the room was looking now as they seemed to put on a heated display. Lucius’ anger only grew at the sigh on the ginger’s hand on his son.
> 
> “You dare raise a wand to me, boy?!” Draco stared silently, his wand not wavering as the older man shouted. “You think you can challenge **_me_**?!” His eyes darted around as a few in the crowd reached for wands. “This is a family matter!” He shouted at the onlookers, and while wands lowered people still held them tightly. There wouldn’t be more death, not today.
> 
> “Lucius, please don’t do this.” Narcissa pleaded, getting to her feet. She had lied to Voldemort for her son, she would face her husband for him as well. And now…her daughter. There was no mistaking it, the youngest Weasley was no Weasley at all. The only feature of hers that mimicked theirs was her hair. This girl was the baby she hadn’t seen in sixteen years, the baby she’d sent away and never thought she’d see again. She’d been here all along.
> 
> Crazy with anger, Lucius turned on his heel and faced his wife. “Shut your lying mouth!” He screamed at her. “I knew she wasn’t dead, I knew your filth was out there somewhere and I told you…if I found her I’d kill you both.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her closer. His other hand taking hold of her hair and forcing her to look towards Draco and Ginny. “Look at them! I said look!” He tugged her hair harder and Draco’s wand sparked. 
> 
> “Get off my mother!” He bellowed, but Lucius ignored him. Lucius held his one in one hand and Narcissa’s hair in the other, looking at her as he leaned in closer. He didn’t bother looking at Draco, he didn’t fear the boy. He believed Draco too cowardly to do anything to him.
> 
> “Look at them.” He growled against her hair. “You look at what you’ve turned your son into. You’ve brought even more filth into this family, you stupid whore. You should have let me kill her the night you had her, you should have paid your penance sixteen years ago. Your son would still be pure if not for you.” His voice was cold and low, but everything was so silent in the room, everyone could hear him. “Now he’s fucking his sister and you just stand by and watch. You’re not a mother, you are nothing but cheating filth and you deserve what’s coming to you.” 
> 
> His wand was pressed to her side and Narcissa took in a shallow breath and braced herself for pain. Her eyed locked on her son with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry.” She nearly whimpered. The blow she expected never came, instead Lucius was thrown backwards away from her and she just stumbled a bit. Draco’s eyes were cold and unblinking as his wand aimed directly at his father. Ginny held to him tightly as she watched with wide eyes as he stunned his own father. 
> 
> It was so quiet that she could hear his heavy breathing and her own heart racing. Everyone stood, staring in silence. It was Charlie Weasley who spoke first, asking the one thing on everyone’s mind. “Sister?”


	5. Who Am I?

> Ginny walked through the darkness hidden under a black cloak, her heart was racing and she chewed at her bottom lip. _What am I even doing here?_ She wondered to herself, but she already knew why she’d come. It had been nearly two weeks since the battle at Hogwarts and just as long since Ginny had spoken to a single soul. She’d stormed out of the castle that night when the truth about her parents came out. She’d locked herself away, not wanting to speak to anyone at all. She felt like her entire life was a lie and she didn’t know who she was. She was questioning her entire existence, the fact that she’d been kissing her half-brother was barely a blip on the radar for her at the time. Other things needed answering first – like who she was.
> 
> The gates of Malfoy Manor opened as soon as she stepped up to them, her blood was the key to them without someone else opening them for her. She was part Malfoy inside and the magic around the building knew that. She looked up at the mansion, several hundred years old. Stone and strong and beautiful. Despite everything that happened in the home, it maintained the high class appearance. The full moon lit up the light stone and the house made Ginny feel insignificant. The Burrow would fit inside this place twenty times or more. It was so massive. 
> 
> She walked slowly up the cobblestone drive and the closer she got the bigger the house felt. At the sound of the gate closing behind her Ginny jumped and spun around. She felt trapped all of a sudden and her heart began to beat so fast against her chest she was sure it was audible. At the clang of the gate, the front door opened. A large beam of light flooded out of the houses. A tall slender figure moved to the center of the light and looked out, wand in hand. She knew his voice as soon as he spoke. “Who’s there?” Draco asked. He was the man of the house now with Lucius back in Azkaban for his crimes. 
> 
> Ginny took a few steps forward into the light and she was reminded for a moment of the last time his wand was on her. The first time they’d talked in that bathroom. He lit his wand, lighting her in the night as she lifted a hand and pushed the hood of the cloak off her head. Draco stood, eyes wide staring at her. With the way she’d left, he was sure he’d never see her again, and yet there she was. “Ginny…” he breathed out and stepped forward. He hesitated, after a few steps, he didn’t want to rush her, but he wanted so much to be closer to her. 
> 
> He walked out with the ease of someone with incredible confidence, the pride he was raised with. Ginny watched him, taking two steps closer herself. As they met in the middle they stood still less than a foot apart both pulled to be closer to the other. “Sod it.” He muttered and reached out for her. He pulled her into his arms, his forehead resting against hers instinctually. He took in a deep breath, soothed with the flowery scent in her ginger hair. Ginny was nervous, she didn’t know what they were supposed to be to one another any longer. Could she just forget everything they’d done together, could she forget she was technically related to him? She was so confused about everything she was that she didn’t know how to act – but was thankful when he moved in first. The embrace calmed her nerves with such ease that she knew it had to be the right choice. After a moment she moved in more, her arms wrapping around his middle and her face pressing against his shoulder. She just stood in the darkness holding onto him. The way she felt when he held her was the only thing that seemed to make sense. The only thing that hadn’t changed.
> 
> “Draco? Is someone out-- Oh…” Narcissa began coming to the still open door, but stopped short when she saw the embrace. “Hello, Ginevra.” She said with a small smile. It was hard not to smile at the girl she knew was hers, but seeing them embrace was still hard for her. She had caused them pain and that was all she was trying to keep them both from. “You two come on inside, I’ll put on some tea.”
> 
> “Oh, um, hello.” Ginny replied, pulling away from Draco and looking down towards her feet. She nodded a little at the invitation inside and waited for her to walk away before she turned back to him. She looked up at him for a second, confused and afraid all of a sudden. She was ready to tell him she should go, but he held out his hand to her. 
> 
> “C’mon, it’s okay.” 
> 
> Ginny nodded at his words, and slid her hand into his, holding it a little tighter than she would have before. But with her first step she was pulling back and shaking her head. “I can’t.” She told him, eyes on the large doorway. “I shouldn’t be here…” She muttered the words but didn’t fully believe it. She was confused and didn’t know what choice was right anymore. Didn’t know where she belonged.
> 
> “Gin.” He began, turning and moving in close again as he spoke so softly. “You don’t have to come in, but nothing is going to hurt you in this house. I promise you.” He told her, and it caught her attention. For all he’d done, he’d never made a promise to her that he couldn’t keep. “I’ll stay with you, even if we sit out here all night, okay?” He couldn’t have imagined how hard this was for her, but he’d never seen that look in her eyes before and he didn’t like it at all.
> 
> His protective behavior stuck with her and she nodded, finally walking with him into Malfoy Manor, a place she never once thought she should be. The house was so massive, and there was so much in there that she wasn’t sure she was ready for. “It’s not at its best inside, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of things so it’s a little bare.” He seemed to be apologetic for the state of the place, but inside it didn’t look bare at all, it was beautiful in its own way. It didn’t feel as welcoming as the Burrow, but it was lavish. She figured the Malfoys weren’t attempting to make anyone feel welcome there, it was a fortress of power not the place to pop in for supper.
> 
> It was warmer inside, but Ginny still had a chill down her back. This had been her home for a few minutes after she was born. Draco led her into the parlor where a fire was burning in the fireplace. They sat together on a sofa and she kept a tight hold on his hand as she glanced around the room. The massive painting above the fireplace of the family caught her eye first and the one thing that really stuck out to her was that none of them were smiling in it. She felt so small in there, the walls lined in shelves, books and display cases – some empty, some holding strange artifacts. 
> 
> “Here we are.” Narcissa said as she came back in, her tone as cheery as she could make it but it only sounded forced. The entrance startled Ginny and she jumped a little in her seat beside Draco. Narcissa sat the tea on the table in front of them and took a seat in a chair to the side. “So…” She took a sip of tea, trying to find the words. “What brings you here tonight?” Even in such an awkward state, Narcissa was still regal in her way.
> 
> Draco turned to Ginny and gave her a nod, trying to show her it was going to be okay no matter what she had to say. “I…” She began, Ginny paused, taking a deep breath and swallowing hard. She shifted some in her seat, sitting up a little taller. She had to remind herself that there was nothing to fear here. “I want to know who I am.” Both Malfoys looked at her but their expressions were hard to read. “I want to know what happened.” She told Narcissa while her hand held tight to Draco.
> 
> Narcissa nodded a little, swallowing hard. “I honestly didn’t know that this day would ever come, I wasn’t sure I’d ever know you.” She explained with a sad expression on her face. “But you have every right to know, you both do.” Narcissa wasn’t going to worry herself with the fact that the two were still holding hands that something had obviously happened between them in the past. That wasn’t what mattered right now. “You should know first that I do not hate my husband. Both of you have every right to hate him.” She added before Draco could speak up against her refusal to loathe the man that beat her. 
> 
> “You should.” He still muttered, but all the woman did was give him a look that made him sigh. They had clearly had this argument many times with how exasperated he looked. Draco found it hard that even though the man was ready to kill the only two women he ever loved, that beat his mother many times, that she couldn’t hate him.
> 
> “I made vows, I will honor them. But…” She hesitated, finding the words and sipping her tea to fill the space. “It hasn’t always been easy. Lucius can be a cold and calculated man, but he gave me my son and for that I can never hate him. You have to understand that when you’re married, when you’re bonded, life is very different. But Lucius has a very political mind, he wanted an heir, and I gave him that and his attentions went elsewhere. I made bad choices, wanting affection and it caused pain to many people.” She paused, her eyes locked with her son’s. She didn’t want him to think badly of her, but he wouldn’t have blamed him if he did. But he just watched her, waiting for more. 
> 
> “When Lucius found me with the man, a pureblood wizard named Francesco, he punished us both. Lucius concocted a story about the man trying to rob us and attacking me and Francesco was sent to Azkaban.” She swallowed hard. “I heard that he died there some time ago. The attack on me was not from Francesco of course, it was punishment from Lucius.” Draco took in a sharp breath, he’d seen his mother get hit, but hearing her talk about it as if she ever deserved it made more anger flare inside him. “I got pregnant, but it wasn’t until the child – you - were born that I knew you were not Lucius’s daughter.” She looked on to Ginny as she spoke. 
> 
> Narcissa spoke as if from far away, her eyes not meeting either of her children. “I knew the moment I saw you, you had a head full of beautiful red hair when you were born. And so strong, you held my finger so tight.” Narcissa forced her emotions away and sat up straighter. “I didn’t want to send you away, but I knew I had to if I wanted you to live. I had Dobby take you away, told him to find a family of pureblood wizards who would love you as their own. I ordered him to never to tell a soul where you were and even as a free elf, he took that information with him to his grave.” 
> 
> Narcissa lifted a perfectly manicured hand to her eye, swiping a tear before it fell. “You were gone before Lucius ever laid eyes on you, I knew if he saw you he’d kill you on the spot, kill us both.” She nodded a little, trying to make it really clear to them both that she did what she had to do. “I remember thinking about you when Dobby disapperated with the knife in him…that I’d never be able to find you without him.” She told Ginny, swiping another tear away. Ginny stared at Narcissa in silence, she didn’t know what to say, she was the product of an affair and sent away so she wouldn’t be murdered. It was not exactly what she had in mind when it came to learning where she came from. 
> 
> “Ginevra…Ginny.” Narcissa corrected herself. “I know this isn’t a fairy tale, but I want you to know that I only sent you away so you could live, not for any other reason.” She needed the girl to know that despite the battles between their families that she was wanted. Ginny just nodded, looking at her knees, at her hand in Draco’s. 
> 
> “Yeah…” Ginny muttered still trying to take it all in. Draco moved his thumb over the back of her hand, she wasn’t usually quiet, if she felt something she spoke up. But she was holding back now and he knew it. “Still doesn’t tell me who I am…or who you are. I-I came from you, but I don’t even know you.”
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> The only thing that felt familiar was the sky so despite the cold, Ginny found herself sitting outside on the grass in front of the manor looking up at the stars in the darkness. Draco brought her a thicker cloak than the one she was wearing, wrapping it around her as he came out to join her. “Mum’s asleep, I gave her a dreamless sleep potion and took her upstairs.” He explained, sitting down in the moist grass with her. “She kept asking me if you were okay, telling me to leave her alone and come out here.” He reached over, wrapping his arm around her. “ _Are_ you okay, Gin?” He asked as she leaned her head over on him. 
> 
> “I don’t know.” She told him honestly. “I keep thinking back over all these things in my life, on what would be different if I weren’t a Weasley. I know I’d be different, if I were raised here…I’d be completely different, I wouldn’t look at people or the world the same way. I wouldn’t know the same things I know now…I wouldn’t be able to tend a garden or make onion soup. I would never have had to want for anything because you always had everything. I wouldn’t have been taken into the Chamber…I wouldn’t have been at the Ministry fighting…I wouldn’t have flown a thestral to London. I wouldn’t…have…” She trailed off and turned to him then, looking at his face and they both knew what she was thinking about then. She wouldn’t have ever kissed him. 
> 
> Draco nodded a little. “You’re right…but…what would you have? A lot of stuff? A lot of hate and fear? Forget fate, Gin… it doesn’t matter. What matters is who you are right now.”
> 
> “But who am I?!” She asked loudly, no one would hear her anyway, the distress of it all written all over her face. “I’m your sister!” She exclaimed, her voice cracking.
> 
> “No.” He spoke calmly almost sternly. “You’re my blood, but you are not my sister. A sister is not just blood, it’s family and that’s not what we are to one another.” He paused for a while, talking about feelings was hard for him, but she’d always been the one he could do it with. “I’m glad you didn’t grow up here.” He told her and she looked at him strangely, not sure if it was insulting or not. “Gin… you were the one person I had when everything in my life was falling apart. You were the one person who didn’t turn on me or make it harder. Every day at school I felt like I had something good to look forward to because I got to spend time with you. If we grew up together as siblings…I’m sure we’d be there for one another, but you wouldn’t have been the light in the storm, you’d have been right there in the storm with me. And you wouldn’t be the same person you are, you would have been as awful as I was growing up. You’d hate and be cruel, you’d have been hurt and guarded, not open and willing to know someone who didn’t make it easy.” He reached over, pulling the hood of the cloak up to shield her from the cold a bit more. “I was not raised to be thankful, I was raised to be entitled, and I know that now. But I am thankful to have met you when I did. I needed you in a way I never understood back then. And I know it doesn’t help you figure out where you came from, but…I maybe it’ll help know where you are right now.”
> 
> “I’m glad I was there for you and you for me. And I’m glad that you trust me, I really am, but…I need more. I need to be sure about who I am. For me.” Draco nodded and put his arm around her, drawing her closer and letting her head rest back against his shoulder again. He didn’t hold it against her at all, he wasn’t the one who had been sent away, and he didn’t blame her for wanting to know more about where she came from. But he knew better than anyone, that she had the better life between them.


	6. Regret Nothing

> “Do you ever regret it?” Her words were soft as she looked over to him. His pale skin seemed bright as the morning light filled the room, curtains never closed anymore. He had been living in darkness too long to keep doing it now that he didn’t have to. He was laying in gray lounge pants head to foot with her on his bed. It was larger than any bed she’d ever seen in her life, she was sure it wouldn’t even fit in her bedroom at the burrow. He had the softest white sheets she’d ever laid on, it looked almost royal with the tall wooden structures and elegance. 
> 
> Ginny’s red hair against the green silk pajamas he’d given her to wear reminded him of Christmas, he wanted to reach out and touch her, to run his fingers through her hair again like he had done in school so easily. He wanted to draw her against him, but he couldn’t do that now. It was hard to keep in mind that he had to restrain himself now. “Regret what?” Her fingers reached over and touched his left forearm where the mark was once black it was now just a scar that marred his porcelain skin. He watched her fingers move over his skin and nearly shivered at her touch, especially there. He furrowed his brow for a second. “If I said no would you hate me?” He asked her in return, already giving his answer.
> 
> “You know I couldn’t hate you.” She told him, her eyes locked on his. He had to know by now, she was still there after everything she knew he’d done, knowing he’d been marked, knowing he’d been plotting a murder while he was secretly seeing her; despite the risk of losing her because of it, he had never kept the dark side of himself from her. 
> 
> “I can’t regret it.” He told her with a slight shrug, eyes never looking away from her. “It changed everything for me, for my mother…in the end, if I hadn’t done everything I did...” He sighed a little. “You know I wouldn’t have gotten to meet you like I did.” He tried to find the words to explain how he felt. “It was hard, it was painful and a miserable experience in my life, but…I feel like over the time I became a different person, became a man. And I don’t know if I’d like myself much if I hadn’t been through it all.” He looked to her, not sure if she would understand what he meant. But she smiled at him and her hand stayed resting on his forearm and as he spoke and watched him, he understood, it wasn’t about her asking him as much as it was her trying to find more understanding of this life. 
> 
> “Did it hurt?” She asked softly, her fingers still on the scarred skin. 
> 
> Draco watched her fingers move over his skin. She wasn’t overly girly, her nails weren’t manicured like his mother, and he knew her to be sporty, but he still found her hands feminine and beautiful. He nodded to her question. “Yeah.” His brow furrowed slightly. “Like being branded with actual fire.” 
> 
> Ginny was quiet for a while, her mind filling with questions but only one came out. “Do you think…if I’d been raised here…I’d have done it too?” She asked him, her eyes were on his arm now as she honestly wondered what kind of person she would be without the upbringing she had. “You think I’d have gotten a mark?”
> 
> He looked at her for a long moment and then decided to just be honest. “Yes.” Her eyes looked up at him not sure if she should be offended or not. “You would.” He told her honesty in his eyes. “You’d do anything to protect your family, I don’t think that’s something you learned growing up with your family, I think it’s just in you.” She was quiet, taking in what he had to say. “Although, who’s to say if you were here all along what kind of life we’d all be living, you know?” They had been asking these kind of questions of one another since the beginning, so it was nothing new to pose them now.
> 
> They had been talking all night, Ginny trying to figure out who she was, trying to stop feeling empty inside after finding out her family wasn’t her blood. They saw the sun come up as exhaustion slowly set in. “Draco?” She whispered, her head on his pillow, breathing in his scent as it surrounded her. He’d moved, head on another pillow near her, his eyes fighting to stay open, to keep them on her. “Do you love me?” She asked him, eyes fluttering open to see him looking at her. 
> 
> He nodded to her silently, sliding his fingers between hers if only to keep them out of her vibrant hair. “Yeah, I do.” He told her, his slight smile was a sad one…he had loved her for a long time but everything was different now and he didn’t know if he should any longer, if he was wrong to still love her knowing what he knew.
> 
> “Me too.” She whispered, eyes falling closed again. She smiled a small sleepy smile. She held his hand a little tighter and gave it a pull, as he moved in closer to her they shifted to hold one another. So close together in the large bed that they only took up a small tiny space in the middle. Neither had been sleeping much in the past few months, too much had happened that neither could stop their mind when it was quiet but now they seemed to calm enough to finally sleep. They fell so deep that they slept the entire day. Laying in the soft bed while sunlight came through at least one window of the massive room no matter the time of day until it was completely dark again. 
> 
> Ginny woke with a start, not knowing where she was for a moment. It was pitch black in the room and she felt her breath shorten as her eyes darted around. Draco sat up, eyes adjusting a little faster than hers as he knew where he was. “Gin,” he said softly, his arm going around her. “Ginny it’s okay, we just fell asleep.” His voice, his touch, and the realization that it was his scent all around her began to calm her. Her breathing slowed from the panic it had become and she turned towards his voice. Draco reached for his wand and flicked it towards the fireplace, lighting it instantly. The room glowed and the flickering made the light dance across their pale skin. Draco reached, his fingers glided through her hair, calming her and himself. 
> 
> She took a deep breath and nodded a little, slowly the previous day came to her. She’d told her mother she needed to talk to the Malfoys, that she was going to take some time away and figure some things out. She’d arrived in the dead of night and never left the manor. She had talked to Draco about their lives, and what they could be if it were different. She’d asked him if he loved her…and said she loved him in return. With a few more deep breaths, she leaned back against him and looked around the room. His bedroom. An antique clock on the mantle over the fireplace in his bedroom showed 3 am. 
> 
> Ginny turned to Draco and his hand paused, deep in her hair, nearly cradling the back of her head. Much like him, it was hard sometimes to forget all they had shared in the past, all they’d felt for one another before the truth had come out. His eyes looked silver in the glowing light from the fire and they locked on hers. She reached up slowly, her fingers touching his hair. It was unkempt, and she straightened it a little with her fingers. 
> 
> She looked from his eyes to his lips, she wanted so much to kiss him again, to feel the way he held her when his mouth crashed into hers. The way he claimed her with each kiss. He watched her eyes and knew she was thinking the same thing he was. His fingers slid through her hair once more, sliding out this time. “I would kiss you right now if…”
> 
> “If?” She asked him softly.
> 
> “If I didn’t think you’d regret it after.” He told her with a strange sadness in his voice. Her frown was heartbreaking to him but she nodded a little. If it weren’t so dark, he may have seen the spark in her eyes, he may have seen the determination behind the warm brown hues. But the fireplace only gave them so much light in the darkness. He didn’t expect it when she shifted, her hands quickly taking his face as she moved in to kiss _him_. 
> 
> “I regret nothing.” She told him as she pulled back and he looked to her in shock. She took a deep breath, not breaking his gaze and he nodded as well. 
> 
> “Regret nothing.” He agreed as he leaned his forehead against hers. She nodded slightly against his head, sighing with a hint of relief. She’d been fighting her feelings for him since she discovered what they were to one another, what their blood dictated them to be. She didn’t care in that moment what they were supposed to be to one another, she didn’t care what people would think. She just wanted to be close to him, wanted to feel something familiar and right. His hand raked through her hair as he looked into her eyes. 
> 
> They moved back in, the kiss starting slow but quickly escalating to something deep and more passionate than they’d shared in the past. His fingers pushed into her hair again and as he kissed her, he leaned her back against the bed. She moved her legs some to kick away the blanket she’d been tangled in. Her nails scraped against his scalp and the back of his neck. He let out the softest groan and kissed her that much harder. They had been trying so hard to hold it all back that they were overwhelmed with the feelings inside themselves. 
> 
> He laid half beside her half on her as his lips moved across her jaw and down her neck. He couldn’t help himself, he wanted to let his lips touch as much of her as he could. When her nails went down his bare back his instincts took over. His lips parted and his teeth grazed her neck, with a sharp intake of air, her back arched towards him and she tilted her chin to catch his lips with hers once more. Draco’s long fingers roamed her body as he kissed her long and deep. Neither tried to stop anything that was happening between them, in the late hour neither cared about blood and rules of society. In the firelight of that room, they only cared about each other.


	7. Not Ideal

> Draco woke seeing red. Ginny’s hair was right in his face as her head rested against his chest. As he listened to her breath he tried to hold his own breath, to barely move so he wouldn’t wake her up. The night before had been as close to perfect as he could imagine a night to be. Despite how heavy things were getting, they gradually slowed down and the two fell back asleep. As he thought about the night before he hoped that she would still hold to her lack of regrets in the light of day. A lot could change after a good night’s sleep and he was honestly worried that she would wake up and regret everything that had happened. That she would hate him for letting it happen. 
> 
> Ginny woke before she let on to Draco that she was awake. She laid against him with her eyes closed listening to his heart beating underneath her. Much like Draco, she was silently worrying over what this morning would be like, if he would have regrets. She enjoyed a few extra minutes of being so close to him before she braced herself for the worst…she didn’t expect that when she lifted her head that he’d be looking at her with a more loving expression than she’d ever seen on his face.
> 
> The expression was enough for her to show her how he was feeling, to show her he still had no regrets and for a beat all she did was return it. She lifted up just enough to see his eyes, watching him, but still resting against him just gazing into his grey eyes. He tucked a bit of her hair back and smiled, “g’morning.” He muttered softly. 
> 
> “Morning.” She replied, her head leaning towards his hand when his fingers touched her hair. With one good morning kiss she was off the bed and out of the room. Draco laid back on the bed, watching her as she slipped out and he just smiled a little to himself, Draco couldn’t remember a time in his life he’d been truly happy, he’d been spoiled sure, but not happy like he was with Ginny. He just pushed back the lingering thought to the back of his mind…despite the feelings, by blood, she was his sister. It wasn’t fair, of all people in the world….her.
> 
> When Ginny came out of the bathroom Narcissa was standing in the hall waiting for her. “Can you come with me?” She asked of Ginny and began to walk towards a set of large double doors that seemed to be on the opposite side of the house from Draco’s room. Ginny took in a nervous breath and followed, immediately worried that Narcissa knew what went on between herself and Draco the night before and would reprimand her for acting in such a way. Ginny did not expect what she saw when she walked through the doors. 
> 
> She was inside the master bedroom…master suite was more like it. It had a sitting area, a writing desk, an open door leading to a closet bigger than her own bedroom, and a door to an attached bedroom. The room was even more luxurious as any other in the home, a large canopy bed with a mix of green, gold, white and silver accents all around. She had expected more darkness in a home like this and Ginny couldn’t help but wonder if it once had been as dark as she thought and was changed when things changed for the family. 
> 
> Narcissa closed the door and motioned to the chairs near the large window Ginny sat in one, feeling a little awkward. She had spent the night in Draco’s room, she was wearing his clothes…what could Narcissa say that wasn’t negative. Narcissa sat in the other chair, handing Ginny a cup of tea. “I know that this isn’t easy for you, Ginevra.” She began, watching Ginny. She could see the resemblances the longer she stared at the child. “I’m truly sorry for that. I know that you are nearly an adult now, and as much as I wished to be the mother to you I was supposed to be, I have to face the facts. You had a very good mother who protected you and raised you as her own.” Narcissa had seen Molly Weasley kill her sister Bellatrix to protect Ginny and knowing now that Ginny was the girl she lost so long ago, she had conflicting feelings on it all. 
> 
> Ginny nodded and took a sip of her tea. “I know why you did it, I know you were trying to save me.” Ginny began, not letting her nerves control her this time. “Did any part of you…ever think if you just fought back, you could have kept me?” She asked softly, barely looking at the mother who gave her up.
> 
> Narcissa could feel the burning in her sinuses, the tears she rarely ever let fall. “I thought about it, but my husband was a very powerful man and I was very weak, especially after childbirth.” She took in a hesitant breath. “Can I have your confidence, your word that my son does not know what I’m about to tell you?” Ginny looked towards the door, Draco was out there somewhere.
> 
> “No.” Ginny told her without hesitation. “Mrs. Malfoy, Draco is my best friend, we don’t have secrets.” It was the last thing Narcissa thought she would hear. 
> 
> “Hmm, he’s a little more than that I’d say.” The mother spoke without thinking of the effect of her words, she couldn’t walk on eggshells with Ginny forever, but she hadn’t planned on being so blunt. Ginny’s cheeks went red instantly and her eyes went wide before she looked away quickly. “It’s all right, Ginevra, I’m not scolding you .” Ginny still couldn’t turn around. “But I want to answer your question without hurting my son any more than he’s been hurt by his father, do you understand?” 
> 
> Ginny slowly turned, looking to Narcissa. She knew that there was something happening between her and Draco, she knew that it was more than a friendship but she wasn’t condemning them for it. It didn’t make sense to her, but she wasn’t going to question it now. “I understand that lies hurt people.” Ginny replied, trying to push aside how awkward she was feeling.
> 
> Narcissa took in a deep breath, almost sounding like she was losing her patience but after a few moments she seemed to calm. Ginny couldn’t help but wonder how they did that, her and Draco both seemed to be able to push away their feelings when they had a purpose. Narcissa looked back to the door and then to Ginny, deciding to tell her anyway. “The night you were born, Lucius came into the room less than half an hour after I’d sent you away. I tried to lie, I told him you died in childbirth and that I couldn’t bear to see you so I sent you away, but.” She took a deep breath, she’d never told a soul what happened that night. “He knew I was lying and he got very angry.” Ginny’s stomach seemed to drop, Narcissa’s tone made it very clear she was about to reveal something terrible. Ginny’s eyes welled and a tear fell down her pale cheek as Narcissa told her about how Lucius beat her, told her she wouldn’t ever shame him again and took away her ability to ever have more children – her words leaving the small ginger stunned.
> 
> Narcissa continued, overlooking Ginny’s inability to find words with that knowledge. “The truth is, as much as I wanted you, wanted to know you all these years, I have never dwelled on not fighting back. It was the right choice for us all. You lived and grew up loved. You didn’t have as much as I wish you could have, but you had a family. And if he killed me I can’t even imagine what would have happened to Draco.” At that both women turned towards the door once more as she thought of her son. 
> 
> “I don’t think you did the wrong thing.” Ginny began, shifting in her seat and pulling a leg under herself. “I just...I wonder if you messed with fate by keeping me alive.” She told the woman honestly and Narcissa frowned for a moment.
> 
> “I don’t think-“
> 
> But Ginny stopped her as she kept talking, explaining herself. “I was given away by my mother to keep me alive. By the age of eleven I’d been possessed by Voldemort and every year after something awful was happening around me. Until I was fifteen and started secretly dating my brother while he was plotting to kill someone to save you and his awful father. The girl who grew up with the boy who lived, in the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix…dates a death eater. Then after a war…I find out he’s my brother. And…” She looked into Narcissa’s eyes for a moment, the woman already knew, no point in hiding it. “And I still can’t stay away from him. I’m completely fucked. Don’t you think it’s possible you were wrong?”
> 
> Narcissa took in a deep breath, taking in everything Ginny said, was unpleasant as it was. “No, I don’t.” She didn’t have to consider her answer, she was very sure of it. “You had a family who loved you, you learned early how to survive and you are incredibly strong. You have power and strength and a good soul.” She shifted some herself, turning more towards the girl who seemed to unsure about herself. “And so you’ve been seeing a Death Eater, I was married to one, I’m the mother of one.” She let out a sarcastic chuckle and Ginny wasn’t sure what was happening. “None of us are normal anymore, Ginevra. The last year of my life was spent harboring the Dark Lord right here in this house. Now it’s just Draco and I, my husband is back in prison, my son may end up there next, my home is free and I found you. Nothing is normal but it doesn’t make any of it wrong. I’m not going to tell you that things are going to be okay for you and Draco, that love saves us all or any of that rubbish. It won’t be no matter what happens next. Is it ideal? No. Is it your fault? No. But no one here is judging you except yourself.”


	8. Condemnation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been in the process of re-working this entire fic and while some past chapters look the same, they are not, even this one which is similar has been changed quite a bit. This is the start of an entirely new direction this will be taking from where it was and I am looking forward to finally finishing it with new inspiration on mind.
> 
> Thanks everyone for reading and commenting!!

> “Name.” Kingsley Shacklebolt asked in a deep voice.
> 
> “Draco Lucius Malfoy.” The blonde answered simply, his eyes scanned the room for the one set of eyes that would make this all easier to handle no matter the outcome.
> 
> “And you held the status of Death Eater?” The entire Wizengamot surrounded him, along with witnesses and onlookers. While Draco Malfoy had not been thrown immediately in Azkaban like his father, he was to be tried. His name mentioned in the testimonies of others – including Lucius who vowed to get his son away from his mother even if it meant he was imprisoned. Draco knew this day would come so long as the mark was on his arm. 
> 
> “Yes, I was a Death Eater.” Draco said the words softly, sitting in a chair in the middle of the courtroom, the chains hung loose but he knew from watching the other trials that they could snake around him faster than he could stand if they chose to bind him.
> 
> “You do understand that being a Death Eater is a crime?”
> 
> “Yes, sir.” Draco was in his best robes, trying to make the best impression and while it didn’t show on his face, he was scared.
> 
> “We have been asked to hear you out before we make any choices regarding your sentence, are you prepared to make your statement?” And while it was hard for him to talk about, hard to say how many people he saw tortured in his own home, hard to say how he felt like if he didn’t join and agree to what was asked of him, not only would he be killed but so would his entire family – he did it in front of a full court. 
> 
> Draco’s eyes fell on his mother, she had been there with him through it all. Narcissa Malfoy didn’t cry often, but silent tears were in her eyes as her son’s trial continued. Ginny and Narcissa sat next to one another, other Weasley’s on Ginny’s other side. Draco swallowed hard. “I know I did bad things.” He began. Draco had to be careful of his wording here, and he knew that. Ginny had been up with him the entire night before, neither able to sleep knowing what was coming. “But I did them to protect my family.”
>
>>   _”Draco?” Ginny began softly. He lay in bed with her, his head resting on her torso just listening to her breathe, he was so still she didn’t know if he was awake._
>> 
>> _“Hmm?” He muttered but didn’t lift his head._
>> 
>> _“Don’t tell them you’re not sorry.” She told him, a kind of fear in her tone that he wasn’t used to hearing from her. He rose then, looking to her eyes in the firelight. “I know you’re not, and I know why, but if you say that to them, you’ll be thrown in Azkaban. They won’t care about your reasoning. You’ll be gone.”_
>> 
>> _“I won’t. I promise.” He told her moving in to wrap his arms around her, she was just as scared as he was. It took him back to when they first met, he’d been terrified all the time._
> 
>  He turned to Ginny, he met her eyes and held his tongue and his temper. “Protect them from…” And he continued, giving a few occurrences of the threats, the murders he’d seen, evil things done in his own home. His eyes scanned the way they all looked at him, the way their eyes looked down upon him. He met Ginny’s eyes once more, the fear showing in both grey and brown. He glanced towards his crying mother only for a second before he looked back to Ginny. She nodded, their conversation from the night before not forgotten. 
>
>> _Draco sighed softly as he looked towards the window, the sun was slowly rising up in the distance. He sat on the edge of the bed, his bare feet on the floor. She lay behind him on the bed, her arm wrapped around his middle from where she lay – she didn’t want to let go of him even for a moment, growing scared of a time to come that she wouldn’t be able to hold him again. They had been trying to be positive about the situation, trying to focus on the things he hadn’t done rather than what he had. He hadn’t actually killed anyone, but he knew the past was coming back to get him this time. “Gin?” He whispered softly._
>> 
>> _“Hmm?” She mumbled, tired, but refusing to sleep. She sat up slowly as he turned to face her._
>> 
>> _“I need you to promise me something.” He told her, accepting the fact that he may not be coming back. “I…I know it’s hard for you to be around her alone, but…when I’m gone, I need you to check on mum. She’s going to be all alone here and she will say it’s fine, but it won’t be. Just…”_
>> 
>> _“I’ll take care of her.” Ginny interrupted. “I promise.” His arms moved around her, hiding his face in her bright red hair as the fear took hold of him. She held him to her tightly, her hand rubbing his back. Her head rested against his as her own eyes welled. She was trying hard to be strong for him, trying not to let him say goodbye to her, but it was hard not to admit this could be the goodbye they never said the night Dumbledore died and she went so long without seeing him again._
> 
> “We will take everything you’ve said into consideration.” Kingsley said simply, they all seemed so formal and cold it was hard to guess which way this was going. “Witnesses for the defense?” He called out and Draco looked towards the crowd not thinking anyone would stand for him. Narcissa and Ginny both looked around hopefully waiting to see just one hand raise, one person stand. If they just had one person it would help them more than anyone knew. 
> 
> When it became very clear that no one was going to stand, Ginny stood defiantly. “Ginevra Weasley.” She said and Draco’s eyes locked on her. Molly grabbed for her daughter’s hand, not wanting her to walk down there, but she just pulled away from the women who raised her and stepped past her. Ronald glared down at Draco from his seat as his sister moved past him. How could she do this? Hadn’t enough happened? She’d been spending all of her time with them, gone all night many times without even an owl. Her loyalties had changed the night she learned who she was and he hated them for it. 
> 
> Ginny spoke for Draco, how he had changed, how he wasn’t a malicious person, just made mistakes like everyone did at one time or another. “He has a scar, it doesn’t mean he did anything because of it. He only wanted to keep his family alive, that’s not a crime, I know he didn’t do it the right way, but…he didn’t know any other way.” She kept her chin stiff and strong, she wasn’t going to let these people see her cry. Draco’s eyes went from Ginny, thankful for her words, to scan the court, try to see if she could convince any of them.
> 
> Ginny was thanked for her testimony and sent back to watch the trial with her family. As she walked back up to her seat she paused at Harry. “Please.” She whispered to him. Harry had told her about the Astronomy Tower, about Draco being unable to kill and Dumbledore offering him and his family sanctuary. But Harry just looked sadly down at her and shook his head, he mumbled an apology to her as she moved past him back to her seat. She didn’t let any of them see her break at the lack of support and back-up. She sat with her chin jutted out, staring out in a way that made her look more like Narcissa than anyone had ever noticed before. 
> 
> Draco’s eyes fell onto Ginny, watching her denied by Harry, watching her go sit with his mother and surprised to see her reach out to his mother even in her stone like state. Their hands joined between them and he knew she was telling him she would keep her promise to him, she would take care of his mother – their mother. 
> 
> “If that’s all we’ll take the vote now.” Kingsley said in a booming voice seeming even louder in the silence of the large room. “Guilty?” He asked and hands went up around the room. Ginny looked distraught as she saw the number of them. This wasn’t good. “Not guilty?” And another set of hands went up – far less than before.
> 
> “Draco Malfoy, it is the decision of this court that you are guilty.” Draco’s head hung and he closed his eyes tight, reminding himself not to be weak. “You are hereby sentenced to no less than six months in Azkaban Prison.” After the last battle they’d let many off for claiming they were imperioused, for naming names, this time the courts were less forgiving and if you had a mark, you were going in, the amount of time you’d spend under the watch of Dementors was the discretion of the court depending on each situation. Draco had actually been given the shortest sentence of anyone tried, the fact that he was allowed to go home before his trial had said more than people realized. 
> 
> “No!” Narcissa screamed out, sobbing as Ginny reached and put arms around the woman who gave her life. She didn’t cry as she stared down to the man she loved, and Draco understood. 
>
>> _Draco kissed her softly, his bedroom the only place they could truly be together without the fear of judging eyes. They left the world behind when they locked the door. They slept wrapped up in one another, they kissed and touched and forgot their blood and their histories. They stayed close and nothing else existed but them. “They’re going to send me away.”_
>> 
>> _“Stop. Don’t say that, they won’t. You didn’t do anything except get marked.”_
>> 
>> _“Ginny.” He sighed some, still so close to her that he could feel her breath on his lips. “Please.” She bit at her own lip to stop, letting him get what he needed to say. “They’re going to send me away in the morning and.” He swallowed hard. “And when they do, don’t cry okay? Please don’t cry. I don’t want the last time I see you to be you crying.”_
>> 
>> _And she understood then, this time he needed her to be strong for him, needed her to do what felt impossible and smile at him when they took him away. She swallowed hard and her words came easy then. “Do you love me?” She asked him, just as she had before._
>> 
>> _“Yeah, I do.” He told her softly, fingers running through her hair and then sliding down her back. She wore the matching top to the pajamas bottoms he had on._
>> 
>> _“Me too.” She told him as she leaned in to kiss him again, trying to take away everything bad on their minds. They were tangled up in one another and kissing deeply within moments._
> 
> Ginny looked over to a very frightened man as the doors to the court room opened. The cold wave hit the room and within seconds, several patronuses were hovering around the crowds, keeping them safe. Through the glow she met his eyes and she smiled down to him. He didn’t take his eyes off Ginny as they came for him. She silently mouthed the words ‘I love you’ to him through the glow of the patronus before her. His chin quivered as the fear and sadness overtook him, tears falling freely. It took everything for Ginny to keep the smile on her lips that he’d asked her to have, to wait until he was gone to let her tears fall as freely as Narcissa had. 


	9. Family

> The enchanted trunk lay on Ginny Weasley’s bed as she filled it with everything in her room that truly mattered to her. Ronald stood in her doorway with his arms crossed and the angriest stare he’d ever given to his baby sister. “Will you stop?” Ginny snapped at him, he’d been glaring at her since he’d gotten home. He’d met his distraught mother and father in the kitchen and heard the news. Not only was his little sister moving out, she was moving into the worst possible place in the entire world. Malfoy Manor.
> 
> “No.” He told her, his lips tight. “You know, this family has been working really hard to make you happy. To try to show you that you were taken in and loved, not lied to. You’re so damn selfish.” He nearly growled his words. “You’re breaking mum’s heart, you know that? And this is worse than Percy’s idiocy, you’re not stupid, just cruel.”
> 
> “Shut up!” She snapped back at him, turning on her heels to glare right back. “I made a promise, Ronald! I told you already, I promised I would help take care of her. You know without her I wouldn’t even have been here to be your sister? Without her I wouldn’t have been born?! How am **_I_** selfish?!”
> 
> “You made a promise to a death eater. He’s where he should be, Ginny!”
> 
> “Shut up!” She shouted as she threw a set of robes into the trunk angrily.
> 
> “He deserves to rot in Azkaban!” He shouted back at her. “I don’t care who she was to you for the first ten seconds of your life, mum and dad have been there for you the past sixteen years! And you would go to that house? Do you remember what happened in that house?!” He had stepped in her room now, both in a full out shouting match. 
> 
> “I was born in it!” She screamed back at him.
> 
> “Hermione was tortured in it! Nearly killed in it! Voldemort lived in it, people who tried to kill you and everyone you loved, lived in that house from hell! We were locked in there, Luna, Olivander. What in Merlin’s name is wrong with you?!” A floor below, Molly cried at the kitchen table as she listened to her two youngest children scream at one another. 
> 
> “But **he** didn’t do any of that! It wasn’t his fault!”
> 
> “He’s a **Death Eater** , Ginny! What about that don’t you get!?”
> 
> “I made a promise.” Ginny said, her tone going cold. She was tired of shouting, tired of being shouted at and tired of hearing Draco insulted. “I’m not going to break it.” She looked at him with a coldness in her dark eyes. “I don’t turn my back on people when they’re counting on _me_.” 
> 
> Her words cut into him, bringing back terrible memories and making him wish he’d never told his family what really happened that year on the run. He stared her down for a second before he shook his head at her. “I don’t even know you anymore.” He told her, looking at her with disgust and disappointment before he walked out. Ronald said goodbye to his mother, apologizing for the fighting and for leaving. He just couldn’t stay and watch what was happening.
> 
> Ginny sighed, even at his worst she’d never seen him look at her like that. “I don’t know me anymore, either.” She muttered to herself as she turned back to packing. Ginny was still having problems coming to terms with who she truly was, what she should be. But she knew she wasn’t going to break a promise to the one person who had always been honest with her. Draco had done bad things, she wouldn’t deny that, but he hadn’t lied to her. He didn’t tell her what he’d done when he let the Death Eaters into the school, but she justified that he’d tried to when he told her that it was all for survival outside the walls of their world. 
> 
> “Mum?” Ginny began from the foot of the stairs. Molly quickly wiping her face with the dish towel on the counter before turning to face her youngest child. “Mum, you…you know why I’m doing this, right?” 
> 
> Molly forced a smile on her face as she nodded. “Yes, dear, you’re keeping your word, I understand.” 
> 
> Ginny swallowed and stepped in closer. “You know it’s not because I don’t want to be here, because I want to live there or anything like that…she’s not my mother.” Molly nodded a little and Ginny moved in to hug her close. “I love you mum, I just need to do this for a little while.” Molly couldn’t watch as her daughter stepped into the fireplace and called out ‘Malfoy Manor’ before the green fire took her and all her things away from the Burrow. 
> 
> Narcissa was sitting in the parlor with a glass of wine when Ginny arrived with luggage in the fireplace. “Ginevra?” She asked as she stood up. She truthfully had not expected Ginny to return now that Draco was gone, she’d been spending most of her time drinking elf-made wine and wallowing in her loneliness. She tried to straighten her robes and make herself look more presentable to the daughter she’d given up, but it wasn’t doing much for her appearance.
> 
> “Hi…” Ginny said softly, looking around nervously, she had never been in the house without Draco before and wasn’t really sure what was supposed to happen now. “Um…I was thinking that, if it was okay with you maybe I could.” She nodded to her trunk. “You know…stay a while.” A light hit Narcissa’s eyes at the words and she nodded several times.
> 
> Ginny was given a room in the manor, a luxury room grander than anything she’d thought she’d have, it was nearly as beautiful as Narcissa’s own room. However, no matter how beautiful the room she unpacked her trunk into was…Ginny couldn’t sleep in it. She still found herself walking across the hall to Draco’s room. It wasn’t the same without him there, holding her in the large bed, but it was as close as she could get to him. She slept in his clothes and wrapped herself up in his sheets while holding onto his pillow. She slept until she would hear Narcissa crying in the night. It was then she would slide out of the bed and make her way down the long hall towards the room she was born in. 
> 
> She tapped on the door the first few nights, but after a week, she began to just let herself in. She would hug Narcissa and let her cry, she would tell her everything was okay and remind her how strong Draco was. “He made it this far, he can handle six months…he’s going to come home.” And she would eventually ease the dreamless sleep potion into Narcissa’s hand and ease her back into the bed to sleep. During the day, Ginny found ways to keep Narcissa busy and keep her mind off of Azkaban. Narcissa had help most of her life, help cooking, help cleaning, and Ginny found the best place to begin was to share the kitchen with her and find ways to teach the once-pampered wife how to cook. 
> 
> She took the woman to the garden and seemed to find her niche there. Narcissa had never tended her own garden before, but the flowers and the need to keep something else alive seemed to occupy her more than anything else. Within the first month, Narcissa was on her own in the garden and doing well. They spent rainy days in the kitchen and sunny ones outside. Ginny had a lot of room to fly at the manor, but as soon as Narcissa got a look at her broom she had a new one ordered. Ginny was treated like the daughter she was born to be, the best of everything and wanting for nothing - except Draco.
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> Ginny had tried her best to do what Draco asked of her, to take care of his mother but her own confusions were still there, lingering on the more time she spent in the house. It wasn’t until she felt like Narcissa had felt good enough to spend time on her own that Ginny began to roam the house. She looked at portraits and art around the house, she searched for photos of the family together as Draco grew up, but all the photos were posed for, nothing spontaneous like in the album in her room. No first-steps, no laughing or silliness. Nothing that looked like a _family_. 
> 
> Ginny would spend hours going through empty rooms that now stored items the family didn’t feel needed to be displayed. Old clothes out of style and furniture replaced. On the fourth floor Ginny sat on the dusty floor, her jeans just as dusty. She lifted the lid to the trunk that was so covered with years of grime that she was sure no one had ever opened it. She wasn’t sure what she had been looking for all this time, just that she still hadn’t found it. Inside the trunk was a small blanket with silver monogrammed letters ‘SM’. She pulled it out and the fabric was still silken soft. Beneath it was a silver baby rattle and Ginny wondered if these were once Draco’s things, though the monogram wouldn’t fit him.
> 
> “They were supposed to be yours.” Nasrcissa said from the open doorway. Ginny jumped, nearly dropping everything in her arms and looked up guiltily. She stepped inside the room, and aimed her wand at a chair, cleaning the layers of dust from it before sitting down. “It was the only things I could save from Lucius.” She said with a sadness in her voice. “We had an entire nursery for you, he destroyed almost all of it, but Draco had those things in his room and Lucius never found them. I hid them away…couldn’t bring myself to get rid of them.” Narcissa reached for the blanket, her fingers moved over the monogram. “Seraphina Malfoy.” She explained in a whisper. 
> 
> Ginny looked down at the blanket. Seraphina? It definitely wasn’t a fitting name for herself, but then again, they had no idea whose child she was at the time either. She offered Narcissa an awkward smile “I’m sorry, I wasn’t meaning to snoop.” She muttered. “I was just…I don’t know, trying to…”
> 
> “I know.” Narcissa told her, reaching to wipe a bit of smudged dust from Ginny’s cheek. “You don’t need to apologize, you still want to know things. Everything here is yours, Ginevra, and you can ask me things. I know you’ve seen me….at less than my best, but, I can still answer your questions.” Over the following weeks, Ginny and Narcissa began to look through the house together, Narcissa explaining the history of things they found.
> 
> \+ + + + +
> 
> “So,” Arthur began, clearing his throat as they all sat at the table together for supper. His spoon moved around his stew a few times as he tried to find words to say to his daughter. “How is Narcissa doing?” It was after all the reason she’d left home. Ginny had been back at the Burrow a few times since she left three months before, but each visit had been more awkward than the one before. 
> 
> Ginny took a sip of water and looked up to her father. “She has good days and bad.” It was the most she really wanted to say, knowing the matriarch of the Malfoy family would not want her weaknesses discussed at the dinner table. 
> 
> “Pity.” The sarcastic tone came from the back door where Ronald stood and Ginny’s eyes flashed as she looked up.
> 
> “You said he wasn’t going to be here!” she snapped, eyes going to her parents.
> 
> Molly sighed and pushed her bowl away, the two hadn’t spoken since the fight before Ginny left. “We didn’t know he was going to come to supper tonight, Ginevra. And please don’t start shouting at the table.” 
> 
> “Don’t blame her mom, she’s been living in the house where good manner’s died.” Ginny glared up at her brother as he walked in and made himself a plate before sitting across from her at the table. “What are you wearing anyway?” He asked her with a mouth full of homemade bread. Ginny looked down at her clothes – a new jumper from Narcissa. Ronald just scoffed and shook his head as he ate.
> 
> “Oh shut up.” Ginny snapped back. 
> 
> “Both of your shut up.” Molly scolded. “I am tired of this fighting. I cannot take this any longer, you’re family.”
> 
> “Some of us are.” Ronald mumbled bitterly and Ginny’s eyes went wide in shock, pain and anger. 
> 
> “Oh, I’m not family now?! Is that how you want it?!” She shouted, standing so fast her chair flipped behind her. “Fine!” She screamed and shoved the table hard, stew sloshing out of the bowls. 
> 
> Ron stood as well, glaring just as hard. “Why not?! You already made a choice when you left! You want to be with them, then go do it!” He’d never done well at expressing himself, pain always came off as anger with Ronald when his emotions hit him hard. “You don’t need some excuse about taking care of the Death Eater’s mother, you wanted to go long before that evil wanker got sent away.”
> 
> The fight came to blows before it came to one of them leaving, both with wants in hand and red sparks flying through the Weasley kitchen before Molly stood with a very loud booming voice “Stop it now!” and with her wand waved she shielded them from one another
> 
> “You don’t belong here!” Ron snapped at her, his face red with anger.
> 
> “I hate you!” Ginny shouted through the invisible shield at the man she’d known as her brother her entire life, angry tears in her eyes as she spun on her heel and disapparated from the house without another word to any of them. 
> 
> Ginny would later send owls to Molly, apologizing for her behavior and for being so disrespectful to the home. She knew better than to behave like that and hoped Molly and Arthur could forgive her for behaving so badly. She apologized for leaving in such a way. She told them how it didn’t matter to her about her blood, they were her parents, but also made it clear that if Ronald was there, she would not be coming back to the Burrow again.


	10. Wrong till the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ending redone and finally complete.

> Draco felt like he’d spent an entire lifetime in the prison by the time his release date arrived. Narcissa and Ginny were both outside in the garden when the gate opened. Draco walked slowly, his body worn down and weak. He resembled a skeleton with his white hair and body so thin and gaunt. Both women looked up when they heard the metal clang of the gate closing behind him. Narcissa let out an audible gasp and Ginny was running down the cobblestone drive before the woman ever got to her feet. Ginny had relieved tears in her eyes matching the smile on her lips. She’d missed him more than she’d let herself admit. She was like a breath of clean air after living in smoke, just the sight of her coming to him, her vibrant hair flying behind her, brought tears to his already reddened eyes. 
> 
> Draco fell to his knees with her as soon as his arms were wrapped around her waist. He was completely overwhelmed with joy after spending months thinking he’d never feel like that again. He felt no shame as he clung to her on the ground and sobbed against her neck. His long thin fingers gripped her, holding her as close as he could. Narcissa was only moments behind Ginny, falling to her knees as well and wrapping her arms around both of her children – all three of them crying joyful tears. 
> 
> After his third bath, he walked back into his bedroom, the black silk pajama pants slipping down off his bony hips. Narcissa was sitting in his room waiting for him with a soft smile on her face. She stood when he walked in and stepped over to him, holding his face in her hands and looking into his gray eyes. “I am so glad you’re home, my son.” It was something she’d said to him at least ten times already, but she couldn’t stop expressing it.
> 
> “Have you been all right, mother?” he asked her softly, having worried about her while he was away; she had been the one taking care of him his entire life and he felt like his bad choices had left her alone. He knew Ginny had obviously come around and checked on her as he’d asked. He never considered that she wouldn’t keep her promise to him. 
> 
> “Oh yes, love, I have been very well taken care of…thanks to you I’m sure.” She told him with a knowing smile. 
> 
> “She told you about that, did she?” He asked, his eyes glancing around a little. Where was she?
> 
> “She didn’t need to tell me.” The mother said softly, sitting on the seat near the window with her son. She couldn’t help but notice the way he looked around, as if waiting for her to come back. “She’s probably in her own room by now. It’s gotten rather late.” She replied simply but his brow furrowed as he listened.
> 
> “Her room? She’s gone?” Had she gone back home already? On his first night back. 
> 
> “No, Draco. Her room _here_. She’s been living here since you…were sentenced.” Draco blinked at his mother’s words, lips parted in shock. She’d moved in? Here? He could hardly believe it, she had never been comfortable in the Manor, or alone with his mother for that matter, but she’d moved in to keep the woman from being alone. “She showed up that night with a trunk and I set her up with the room across the hall.” It was the room that would have been hers anyway, though Draco never knew that. 
> 
> When Narcissa left him for the night he walked quietly across the hall, he pushed open the door and found her sitting at the desk, writing with her back to the door. He smiled a little to himself before he spoke. “Are you sure this is your room? Doesn’t look much like you.” He said softly, catching her off guard. She’d wanted to give him and his mother some time together alone, and it had been the longest time she’d spent in the room since she moved in.
> 
> Ginny turned quickly at his words, a bright smile on her lips as she saw him standing before her. “I’ve never spent a night in it.” She told him as she stood and moved towards him and he knew what she was telling him, she’d been sleeping in his room where she’d always slept. More than anything, Ginny wanted her arms around him, but after all the time apart, all he must have been through she moved slowly across the room rather than rush him. He took long strides in and they met in the middle, arms going around each other with ease. Draco leaned down, his forehead against hers, unable to take his eyes off her. “I missed you.” He whispered as his long think gingers reached up, touching her cheeks softly before pushing into her hair. He had thought so many times about running his fingers through her beautiful hair. He eased her head back and moved in, his lips brushing against hers just slightly. It was Ginny who pushed herself to her toes, pressing her lips firmly to him in the start of a deep kiss. Within minutes they were holding one another in her bed sharing soft slow kisses. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her, his fingers moving down her arm or through her hair – just needing to feel her again so close to him. 
> 
> She held him in the dark, his head resting against her chest as he listened to the beat of her heart. She smiled softly when he whispered his request ‘talk to me’. Her hand moved through his hair as she began to speak. “I decided to come stay rather than just check in when we were in the courtroom. She looked on the outside how I was feeling on the inside and I just had this feeling that no one but her would understand how I was feeling, that maybe we needed each other.” She thought back over the last six months as she told him everything, always honest with him. “They didn’t understand it, why I had to go, why I would keep any promise to you, never the less that one. I think Mum and Dad tried to understand, at the very least they didn’t try to stop me, but Ronald…” She hesitated for only a second and his head raised some, meeting her eyes and seeing unmistakable pain in them. “He hates me.” She told him before she explained the depths of their fights, of how he would throw everything in her face from Draco’s Death Eater status to the new clothing she wore. How it came to hexes thrown back and forth in the middle of the kitchen.
> 
> “Ginny.” He said softly, shifting sit up so he could look into her eyes as he spoke. “I _am_ a Death Eater.”
> 
> “No you’re not.” She replied stubbornly.
> 
> “Yes. I am.” He told her, not wavering. “The reasons why don’t matter anymore, what’s done is done and I am marked. The moment I held out my arm I was a Death Eater. I don’t like it, but I made my choices. I don’t want you fighting with your family over that. I don’t want you turning on them to defend me from _my_ bad choices.” 
> 
> She sat up as well, shaking her head. “No. I’m not going to fight with him about it and I’m not going to fight with you either. You got a mark, you did bad things, but you were not one of them. You didn’t try to kill me from behind a cowardly mask, you didn’t torture people for amusement. It was survival, Draco, I haven’t forgotten that and I’m not going to let you forget it either. This is real.” She told him lacing her fingers through his. “This is real and the rest was survival.” With a sigh he tried to argue with her, he didn’t want to be the reason she was in the outs with her family. “It’s more than that Draco, so much more than you or the mark on your arm.” She sighed, shaking her head some. “He can’t get past my blood, he said I wasn’t his family, that’s not you…that’s me and something I can’t change no matter how much I might want to. Nothing can ever go back to the way it was, not for any of us and it’s not fair, but it’s not your fault and it’s not mine either.” She told him, holding his hand tightly.
> 
> They relaxed back down in time, he urged her to keep talking, to tell him more that had happened while he was away. She talked to him about his mother’s good times and bad, about going to her in the night to console her, about how she found ways to occupy the woman and herself from thinking of what Draco was dealing with far away from them. She told him about how she’d looked around the house, how she’d gone looking for anything to help her know who his family was. How sad it made her that she never saw him smile in a photo. “He didn’t want smiles, he wanted perfection; if it wasn’t perfect it was destroyed.” Draco muttered, explaining the portraits around the home. And she told him about the only two items from her birth that Narcissa had somehow managed to save from the rage of her husband. “Seraphina?” He asked with the same inflection Ginny had thought about it. “No, I can’t see it.” He told her with a small smile as he tilted his head up to her.
> 
> She eventually talked him to sleep, her voice more soothing to him than anything he could imagine. He slept with his head on her chest, the rise and fall of her breathing rocking him gently as she too dozed off. When the nightmare hit him he jerked away, sitting upright and taking in sharp breaths. He knew the Dementor wasn’t really there, he knew from the warmth and the feeling of her legs against his but the image in his mind had felt so real in his sleep. She sat up almost instantly when he pulled away from her, concern in her eyes as she focused on him in the darkness. “I’m okay.” He muttered a few times, taking a deep breath and reaching for her, holding onto her. 
> 
> Ginny lit the fire, hoping the light and warmth of the flames would help ease his mind. But despite knowing he was no longer in the cell, no longer feeding monsters with his pain, he still had trouble going back to sleep. “I used to mock Potter for how he felt when they were near him, but now…” He shook his head. “They make you relive everything bad you’ve ever done or seen in your life. Things I didn’t remember doing, things I never realized were so bad.” He whispered as she eased him back down on the bed and stroked his hair while holding him close to her. “I did…so many awful things I can never take back.” He told her, his voice nearly breaking. “And I’m still doing it. I’m still doing this to you.” He sighed, closing his eyes. 
> 
> “You’re not doing anything to me.” She told him softly, tilting her chin to kiss his head.
> 
> “I am.” He muttered. “Every time I thought of you in there, every time I imagined your eyes or your smile, how your hand feels in mine.” He continued as he held her hand a little tighter. “I felt like you were being ripped out of my soul. Like they were going to tear you away from me. And I’m so selfish, I keep you here and I hold onto you when I should have let you go the moment we found out.” But even as he said the words, he didn’t loosen his hold on her or try to pull away from her. “The only time I got to keep you in my mind was when I thought about how wrong it was to love you like I do.” Ginny’s face fell as he talked, there was no denying that they were doing something wrong, that they shouldn’t be together when they shared the same mother, but Ginny didn’t let him go either. “I don’t deserve you, this is going to ruin you and I’m letting it happen.” He was so weak, so broken still clinging to his half-sister in the night. 
> 
> Ginny bit her lip as she rubbed his back. “It’s going to ruin you too.” She whispered softly. “But I’m still letting it happen. Does that make me a bad person too?”
> 
> Draco pulled back, looking at her with furrowed brows. “No.” he told her, unsure how she could ever think that. “You’re…you’re the best person I know. You’re so good and kind, you’re everything good I’ve ever known.” His voice wavered some as the firelight flickered over her, making her hair look even brighter than it was. “Everything good, I’ll never be.”
> 
> “Don’t be stupid.” She muttered softly, a hand on his cheek. “Why would I be here if you were never good?” His eyes drifted away from hers, it hurt to feel her look at him with those warm brown eyes. “Draco.” She whispered, moving in, her forehead against his as her fingers laced between his. “You want the truth?” She asked him, feeling like nothing less was going to get through to him. He nodded slightly against her head and she took in a deep breath. “We’re both wrong, we’re both bad, and we’re both fucked.” He pulled back at her words, looking at her surprised, ready to disagree, but just as he parted his lips she continued. “You know I’m right, Draco. We’re both here, we’re both to blame.”
> 
> “No.” He told her sternly, the firelight flashing in his eyes. “You’re not to blame for anything.”
> 
> “Of course I am! I know what we are, I know what we were born…I’m still here.” Her chin defiantly jutted out. “And I’m not sorry.” He let out a sigh and fell back against his pillow, she was impossible to argue with, she just disagreed until you were exhausted and gave in. “Are you sorry?” She asked him.
> 
> “Yes. No. I don’t know.” The hurt showed in her eyes. “Gin, I’m not sorry to be with you. But I am sorry that this is going to ruin you. My family is already ruined. My father is never getting out of Azkaban, We’re a family of Death Eaters and supporters and you are the complete opposite of everything my family is. Except…in one way.” And while he didn’t say the words they were both thinking of the most obvious thing they had in common, their blood. “You could leave here, you could go back to the Weasley’s and live a respectable life.”
> 
> “You think I give a damn about a ‘respectable life’?!” She snapped at him. “Do _you_ respect me?” She asked him her fire showing. The night had quickly turned from one of comfort and relaxation to fiery eyes and sharp voices.
> 
> “Of course I respect you! I fucking love you!” Narcissa stood outside the bedroom door as Draco sat up quickly and snapped at Ginny. She closed her eyes tight as she listened to them argue in the night, the noise had woken her up, but she wasn’t going to barge in unless necessary. They needed to figure this one out, she couldn’t do it for them – knowing no matter which outcome came from this, they would both feel more pain than she ever wanted for them.
> 
> “ **That** is what I care about.” She told him, on her knees in the large bed, pointing a finger at his chest. “I don’t care what anyone out there thinks of me. I love _you_. I’m here for _you_.” She poked his chest with each emphasized ‘you’. They had never fought before, there was always too much happening in their lives to fight with each other. “You care what they think! You have always cared what people think of you…what they would think of _us_!”
> 
> “What?!” He snapped and the argument escalated back to the beginning. To lying at school, to it being a problem for him long before it was about their familial closeness. “I wasn’t the only one lying! I didn’t see you telling any of the Gryffindor’s about me!” He saw a fire in her eyes that took him back to the day she found him in the girl’s bathroom, as if she was ready to pull a wand on him and something about it made him move in, he’d fallen in love with that fire and seeing it again in the heated moment pushed him back in time. Before he’d ever been under the care of dementors, to when she was his saving grace in a time of chaos. 
> 
> In the middle of her shouting him down about lying he took hold of her face and moved in. He silenced her with a kiss, passionate but slightly rough. She didn’t hesitate to return the affections, her arms moving around him as the kissed hard. All the reasons to stop fell out of their minds in their angry state as they kissed. They fell against the plush mattress as they tangled together, hands roaming over one another and tugging at their night clothes. Down to his boxer shorts, Draco kissed her fiercely, with his hand under the small tank she wore. It took little time for him to push the loose fitting pants off her hips but as his hand went towards the cotton knickers hers grabbed his wrist. 
> 
> “Stop.” She leaned back from underneath him, eyes locked on his as she took in a few deep breaths before she explained herself. “No more lies and no more shame.” He looked to her, his heart racing, she was forcing him to choose right there, reputations or her. Respected by all, or respected by her. He looked down on her, red hair splayed across a white pillow and those eyes burning into him. He knew he was already dammed, he was already a villain and would forever be seen as such. But she wasn’t. 
> 
> He pulled his hand away and shifted, his hands at either side of her head as he lay over her, hips between her legs. “Then you tell me.” He challenged her right back. “Tell me that you are willing to give up everything you have ever known outside this house, your family, your life, it will be gone if we tell the truth. Are you ready to embrace a life like this? Are you ready to hold you head high even with they all talk about you? Ready to be looked down upon by people who are below you?” He stared into her eyes, his hips pressed down on hers as his arms flexed at her sides. 
> 
> Draco was ready for her to admit he was right, that they couldn’t tell people what they were, that it had to be a secret for them alone. He should have been more prepared for her defiance as it made him love her even more. She looked up at him, those eyes bearing down, trying to see into her soul. She hooked a leg over his, while smaller than he was, she wasn’t weak, she was athletic and healthier than he’d been in the last six months. She shoved him, rolling him to his back and straddling his bony hips – his hands instinctively going to her waist while her hands pressed flat to his bare chest. She leaned down, just as his eyes bore into her, hers did the same. “No. Shame.” She told him sternly. “I’m not the one with a choice to make, you are. I accepted this a long time ago, I accepted what we are and what I want. I am here, aren’t I? Do you not see I’ve _already_ given it all up?!” 
> 
> The aggression seemed to slip out of them as his eyes softened looking up at her. He had been so consumed with all the wrong he’d done, in destroying the one beautiful and good part of his life that he allowed himself to forget that she made the choice to come there. That in the night, she came to him. She stayed when he left, she slept in his sheets and surrounded herself with him even when he couldn’t be there to hold her. He brushed his fingers across her cheek, watching her eyes soften as well. She didn’t need to tell him that she did it all for him, that she loved him no matter what she was _supposed_ to be to him. “I have never had shame.” He told her softly, his hand moving up her cheekbones and into her hair. “Not even in the beginning, fear but never shame.” With his fingers barely touching her he brought her down. He kissed her softly, deeply and with more love than he knew he was capable of. “There is no choice for me to make, love.” He told her softly as he held her close, he rolled them again, looking down at her. Still his saving grace in the storm that was his existence. He kissed her again and again, holding her close until the sun came up. 


End file.
